For the Love of the Moon
by manofgold57
Summary: A young child loses every home he ever finds until he finds one with a certain moon goddess.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N After reading a lot of fanfics I finally decided to write my own so here it goes.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

Chapter 1

London, England 1763

A woman's cries of pain pierced the calm night air. Percy could only watch in horror as his father began to beat his mother and cut here with his old army knife. As his mother screamed in agony Percy began to throw punches at him but at only four years of age his blows were barely noticed by his dad. Percy in his growing desperation kicked his dad in the groin, the one place he knew it would hurt. Percy accomplished his goal and his dad stopped beating his mom only for him to turn his rage on Percy. Percy felt nothing but fear until he saw his dad slash him with his knife opening a wound from his temple to the corner of his mouth. The pain was unbearable his dad had never cut him only beat him. Percy not knowing what to do ran for his life and never looked back as he sprinted through the narrow streets of London he came across a group of women all of whom were armed with bows and knives. Percy thought that there armament was a bit strange but he knew they would be able to help him.

"Help me my mother is being beaten by my dad help me." A breathless Percy asked the girl who he only assumed to be their leader.

"Step aside boy before I kill you myself." Was the only answer he got.

"Zoe, calm down let us help his mother for any woman abused by a man deserves our help." Said a small girl with auburn hair and stunning silver eyes from the back of the group.

"Very well milady." The Zoe girl grudgingly said the girl turned her attention back to Percy, "Take us there now and we will see what we can do." With that Percy felt relief, finally someone might end his suffering! Soon after Percy arrived at his apartment and walked into a sight he would never forget. His mother was lying on the floor surrounded by a pool of her own blood and his dad was simply sitting there drinking more ale.

"You are the abomination that has killed this women?" The auburn-haired girl asked.

"Why yes that would be me, and if you ask me I say good riddance." Percy's father replied barely able to keep his seat he was so drunk.

"Then you shall die!" Said the one named Zoe as she fit an arrow on her bowstring and fired hitting the man in the chest killing him before he hit the floor. Percy was shocked finally all the suffering he had felt would be over. Soon he became aware of the fact that the girls were leaving.

"Wait you can't leave me I have nowhere to go!" Percy pleaded.

"We don't take you filthy men with us." Responded Zoe. Percy soon had tears in his beautiful sea green eyes as the only hope of finding the one thing he ever had was denied, a family. The auburn-haired girl looked like she felt bad about leaving him so Percy thought to try his luck with her.

"Please I have no home." Percy pleaded. The girl had an obvious mental struggle and finally caved in.

"While I can not take you with me the best I can do is give you my blessing so hopefully you will be able to survive."

"But milady-"

"Hush Zoe I have made my decision and it is final" Zoe still looked like she wanted to argue but she remained silent. "Now child come forth and receive my blessing." As soon as Percy walked up the girl placed her hand upon his head and muttered "I Artemis give you my blessing." As soon as she was silent all Percy felt was excruciating pain and everything went black.

Soon Percy woke up in the middle of a clearing somewhere in the woods. All he knew was that he was alone and that the ocean was nearby, for some reason he always knew when an ocean was nearby. With nothing better to do Percy got up and started to walk through the woods. He began to think of the events of the day his blessing from Artemis, Gabe's death, and also his mom's death. Tears sprung up in Percy's eyes when he thought of his mom and soon he broke down crying not only because of his mom but also because he was completely alone and had no idea what to do now. Percy sat there crying until he no longer could and the only noise that came from him was sobs. Percy was pulled out of his misery when he heard twigs breaking to his right, immediately he was on his feet and prepared to run. However, all he saw was a man with strange looking overly hairy legs standing here staring at him.

"Hello there." Percy softly cried out.

Eventually the man responded to him. "Follow me if you wish for somewhere safe to go." He said and with that he walked off into the forest. Percy hesitantly followed.

"Wait!" Percy yelled "Where are we going?" Percy asked as he caught up to him.

"Somewhere safe." Was the only response he got. So they continued walking for nearly an hour without stopping until soon howls could be heard in the distance. Percy and the man froze. "Hell hounds" the man said under his breathe.

"What did you say?" Percy asked as the howling grew louder.

"Run! We are almost there!" The man said taking off into a sprint. Percy immediately ran for his life after the man. Percy felt surprisingly nimble as he ran jumping over tree roots and ducking under limbs. But at four years old he could only run so fast and soon the hell hounds were catching up to him. "Listen kid you need to get by that tree up there before it's too late!" The man yelled over shoulder as he pointed to the tree. Percy put on a burst of speed and made it past the tree only to find the man wasn't there with him looking back he saw him facing down a massive black dog with glowing red eyes. Soon, horns were blown from down in the valley but Percy knew any help would be too late for the man. He soon pulled out a strange bronze knife as the hell hound attacked but he was no fighter as he slashed wildly the hell hound dodged and raked its claws against the back of the unbalanced man. Percy screamed in anger despite the fact he didn't know him he felt protective of the man and he ran out to help him not realizing the danger he was placing himself in as he slid down to help him he looked up at Percy and pointed to his knife that lay on the ground. "Pick up my knife and use it." He said. "It is the only metal on Earth that can kill such a fiend." Percy grabbed the knife and faced the hell hound shaking with fear as he thought about what he was about to do. Percy felt the urge to run but he knew running would mean death for the man so he stood protectively in front of him as the hell hound charged and tried to kill Percy in one charge. Percy seeing this felt instinct take over and sidestepped the lunging monster and stabbed through the neck as at went by, as he stabbed he felt a strange tugging sensation across his chest but thought nothing of it. Strangely instead of blood gold dust exploded everywhere covering Percy and the man who likely died to protect him. Soon he could hear people running towards him as he knelt by the man as he cradled his head in his lap Percy nearly dropped him as he saw the horns sticking out of his head. Soon he looked up and nearly fainted as he saw a man who starting below the torso had the body of a horse.

"Poor Grover." The half horse man said. "He was so young." As he looked down his eyes were soon filled with concern as the young child had blood covering his chest all of it coming from three slash marks in his chest. "My boy we must heal you come with me." Percy simply nodded and as he rose up from the ground he felt woozy and saw the ground rushing forward to meet him.

 **A/N So, so far so good? Please review it's the only way it can get better.**


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Originally I was going to do my normal updating plan which is update every Sunday but when I woke up this morning and saw how many of you read it and liked it I knew that I had to get an update out as soon as possible so here it goes.

Chapter 2

Percy woke up in a bed which surprised him until he realized that the campers must have moved him here as he sat up pain erupted in his chest and he laid back down groaning.

"You really are determined to get back on your feet aren't you." A girl on his left said.

" Who, who are you? Where am I?" The girl looked amused as if she always got this response.

"Well to answer your first question my name is Silena and you are in a safe place call Camp Half-Blood." She explained. "Now you stay here while I go get Chiron to explain the rest to you." With that she got up and left leaving Percy to his own devices. Percy looked at his IV and was shocked when he saw two bags feeding it, one with water and another with a strange orange fluid he had never seen before in his life.

"Ah yes it seems you noticed what has been healing you the past few hours." A deep voice that must have belonged to Chiron said. As Percy looked over at Chiron he nearly fainted, again. Chiron was the half-horse man.

"You you are half-horse." Percy stated incredulously.

"Actually my boy I am what is known as a centaur. Are you aware of the old stories about gods, heroes, and monsters?" Percy only nodded. "Well I am one of those myths and everyone here is a child of the gods." Chiron continued with his explanation of the how Camp Half-Blood came to be and Percy only ended up more confused. So his dad that left was a god? Chiron soon pulled him out of his thoughts. "Come Percy, Silena must show you around the camp." As she gave him a tour Percy could only look in wonder at all the different csabins each so remarkably different and all of them arranged in a horseshoe. Percy's favorite part though had to be the woods and the lake as Percy always felt better bear water.

"Oh no, here she comes again." Silena muttered. Percy had no clue who she was talking about until he turned around and saw a tall muscular girl with two guys following behind her who could only be described as her enforcers each was 6'4" and solid muscle with military buzz cuts.

"Who's this kid Silena? Looks like some fresh meat to me." The new girl said.

"Back off of him Grace." Silena responded.

"But Silena all new campers have to go through initiation." The two kids behind her gave knowing smiles as they came forward and grabbed Percy by the arms and soon began to lead him off. All Percy could hear over his beating heart was Silena's curing as she knew he wasn't ready for it. Her pain enraged Percy as he felt his blood begin to boil and a painful wrench in his stomach and the 3 others campers backed away as he was soon surrounded by silvery-blue aura and everyone within the camp could feel the raw power radiating from him soon all the water of the lake burst forward and hit the three in the face and carrying them away from him. As they tried to get up Percy continued to blast them with water and dragged them under and kept them there.

"Percy, stop it!" Silena screamed desperate and scared of Percy. As soon as Percy heard her the waters stopped and flowed back into the lake leaving three sputtering and soaking wet demigods and a perfectly dry Percy.

Chiron hesitantly walked up to him with a look of wonder on his face. "I never thought to never thought to see another son of Poseidon." He said as all stated above Percy's head at a glowing green trident.

A/N Next update should be Sunday and unless I receive an unbelievable number of reviews it will remain that way.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N So yeah last chapter wasn't my best. I made a bad mistake of both rushing it and doing it during school so now I have decided to start taking my time with these and maybe making the chapters longer. Also with the help of some reviews I realized I made Percy WAY too powerful so I will tone down on his powers from here out. So here is Chapter 3.

Chapter 3

Time Skip 5 years

The past five years for Percy had been a living hell. Being a son of Poseidon had its perks as he had really cool water powers but everybody thought he was a freak or something which is technically true as the big three, and especially Poseidon almost never had kids. Today Percy had archery lessons, something he excelled at which always mystified Chiron as a son of Poseidon should not be so good at archery but every time he went to the archery range and practiced he would always end up splitting all his arrows in half, shooting that surpassed Chiron and supposedly rivaled the twin archers Apollo and Artemis.

After his lesson Percy went back to his cabin and took the long way as the Ares campers loved to intercept him on his way to his cabin and beat him up for being such a freak. Percy usually didn't care as he grew up used to this and thought it was normal. Percy was currently on the edges of the woods right next to his cabin he was so close he could taste it till he felt a hand grab his collar and pull him back into the forest. Percy knew by now not to struggle because if he did the beating would only get worse.

"Well well look what the cat dragged in today." Clarisse the leader of Ares cabin said with an evil grin on her face. "Now prissy you are going to learn what happens when you humiliate the Ares cabin like you did yesterday."

Flashback:

Percy was finally playing his first game of capture the flag as Chiron deemed him skilled enough and old enough to play and now Percy would finally have one of his dreams come true. David the leader for their team placed Percy on border patrol as he was too young for defense of offense and border patrol would hopefully get him out of harm's way. As the horn blew Percy advanced to the creek to find nobody there as sounds of fighting carried to him from others parts of the forest. Percy found a seat on top of a rock and waited to see if someone from the other team would come. As time went on Percy became bored and wished that someone, anyone would come and soon he got more than he bargained for as a dozen Ares campers came out of the woods clearly searching for something. All their eyes light up when they saw Percy sitting there and they all advanced, Percy dropped down from his rock and pulled out his sword that was always too heavy but he would have to make do for this fight. One of the Ares campers, Felix Percy thought his name was advanced and struck at Percy's head which would have decapitated him had it landed meaning it was a highly illegal blow. Percy only ducked under it and stabbed him through the kneecap as he fell to his knees Percy struck him on the temple with the hilt of his blade and prepared for the other eleven. This time 3 came at him and tried to surround him as one of them came close to being directly behind Percy, Percy did what they all least expected and attacked the flanker surprising him as he was driven back by the ferocious blows from the young child of Poseidon. Percy soon felt one of the others come up behind him and dodged the overhand cut and as he twisted to the side his sword, like a snake, struck a gap in between his armor and Pericles him in the hip. The rest of the battle was like a whirlwind for Percy as the Ares campers came at him almost one at a time and never exceeding 3 attackers. Percy dispatched all of them with non-lethal blows until only Clarisse stood in front of him with her electric spear in hand.

"I always knew you were good with the sword but you will never match me." She sneered. Percy only took and on-guard stance and prepared for her assault. As it came Percy was forced to back up because of the speed and strength behind her attacks whenever Percy blocked or deflected her spear another attack was coming immediately, and each one felt like a hammer blow to his body and soon he was trembling and sweating will Clarissa had barely broken a sweat as she charged one last time she feinted low and as Percy went to block the feint she kicked him hard in the chest and he flew into the river. Once he hit the water he instantly felt rejuvenated almost like he had taken a large caffeine shot. As he got out of the water Clarissa could only look in awe as her opponent looked like he had never been in a fight that day. Percy then charged her and the tables had been turned. To her his sword was a pinwheel of light as it struck high and low without a moment's notice. Soon Percy heard a voice in his head "My boy, use your power over waters." The deep voice told him. Percy seeing no alternative as he still couldn't land a blow concentrated on the water hitting her in the face and Percy soon felt a tug in his gut and the river bent to his will knocking her in her back. Percy then sprinted up to her and knocked her unconscious with a kick to the head. Only then did Percy notice the crowd of onlookers who saw him thrash half the Ares cabin.

"Wow I must admit that was impressive. Chiron said with a look of amazement on his face. "It has been millennia since I have seen swordsmanship that good."

"Guess what guys that's one more thing we can make fun of the Ares cabin for." One of the Hermes kids in the back yelled out. Looking around ALL the Hermes kids were grinning mischievously as they thought of how to torment Clarisse for this.

Flashback End

Percy had been dragged deeper into the woods and his face was covered in cuts and bruises from their fists. He was used to this treatment by now so he really didn't care what they did until he felt a burning sensation from his eye to the below his chin looking up he saw Clarisse grinning with a blood-stained knife and felt his face to see a large cut had opened up. Until now Percy hadn't cared what they did but being cut like this reminded him of the day his mom died and soon Percy was overcome with rage and grabbed an arrow out of the quiver he still had on. Without thinking Percy stabbed Clarisse under the chin with the arrow and blood began to spurt everywhere. Her two bully-boys stepped back in shock before regaining their wits and deciding to kill Percy for is insolence. As they stepped forward Percy pulled out the sword at Clarisse's hip and marveled at how she could swing such a heavy weapon. Blinded with anger the two boys ran at Percy wildly and Percy just calmly slew both of them. Only now after the deed was done did Percy realize what he had done he looked down at the 3 dead bodies at his feet and knew what would happen if they found him, he would be brought before Olympus and killed for murder. Percy did the only thing he could do he grabbed his bow and arrow, his sword, and the ambrosia he knew Clarisse had on her for healing him after the beatings and took off into the woods to escape Camp Half-Blood. Percy ran until it was dark and saw light ahead moving forward cautiously he soon came upon a clearing and quickly realized with all the silver tents and girls practicing archery this must be the Hunter's camp. Before walking in Percy decided to walk around to perimeter of the camp and in his walk he saw another fire with two girls sitting beside it neither of them looked like hunters so Percy approached them cautiously. As he neared them the smaller girl began to speak. "Come here Percy and sit by the fire we promise not to hurt you." Percy sat down by the fire and instantly felt better the girl and the fire seemed to be radiating a soothing aura that calmed him and made him relax.

"Who are you?" Percy asked.

"Someone who is willing to help you." The other girl responded.

"Oh." Was the only response Percy could give.

"Silly boy." She muttered under her breath. "I am Hecate and this is Hestia." She said, Percy finally realized he was in the presence of two gods and quickly got up and bowed. "Oh please there is no need to bow we only came here because you face a very important crossroad in your life today. One option facing you is to go alone into the wild for you can't go back to camp. The other option is to trail the hunters." Before she could continue Percy was already asking a question.

"Wait! Follow the hunters? Don't they kill all males who they see?"

"Do not interrupt me again. And yes you will follow the hunters but if you do you will receive both our blessings I will give you power over the mist and Hestia will give you the power to summon food. Think carefully before choosing this route though it will be filled with pain for you but I sense you will ultimately achieve happiness in the end." Immediately Percy agreed to follow the hunters. "Now then step forward and receive our blessings." Percy stepped forward and they both placed their hands on his head and began chanting when they were done Hecate took her leave leaving Percy with Hestia.

"Percy," she began "do not reveal yourself to the hunt until I tell you the time is right you will have to help them with particularly dangerous monsters and in addition to the food powers I also gave you teleportation powers so if I need you to I can send you to retrieve more girls for the hunt. Also Poseidon wanted me to give you these." Hestia then pulled out a pen and a blue ring. "Should you uncap the pen it will grow into a sword and if you twist the ring it will turn into a bow."

"Thank you." Percy said.

"Don't thank me thank Poseidon." She responded with a smile.

"I will now I must be going to sleep or I will not be able to keep up with the hunt tomorrow." Percy said while looking up at the moon and noticing it was around midnight.

"Very well then good night Percy." With that she left and Percy felt sleep overcome him.

A/N So any good? I tried to take my time with this one and in my opinion it is much better than Chapter 2 if you have any ideas you want to see incorporated just say so in the reviews.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N So here is the every Sunday update I try to do, some of you have asked that I try to extend the chapters a little bit so that is what I will do. So anyway here's chapter 4.

Italicized- Thoughts(Only Percy's thoughts if not I will attempt to clarify whose they are)

Chapter 4

Percy was soon awoken by sounds of the hunt stirring and preparing breakfast soon the smell of roasting meat filled the air and Percy soon realized how famished he was he thought that now would be a perfect time to try his new food powers out and summoned some roasted ham and quickly took a bite of it only to immediately spit it out. Damn this stuff tastes terrible.

"It's only because you are very bad at the power right now soon the food will begin to taste better." A girl's voice in his head said. Percy then picked the meat up and now matter how bad he wanted to throw up forced himself to eat it. When he was finished he saw the hunt form into two lines behind Artemis and begin to walk towards him he then retreated further in the forest and began to follow the hunt…

-X-

When the hunt finally stopped for the night Percy immediately fell to the ground exhausted. Why do they have to travel so far in one day can't they take breaks? The hunt had travelled at a brisk jog from sunrise to sunset but the hunt had the advantage of traveling on paths through the forest while Percy had to fight his way through the forest. At first keeping up had been easy but soon he began making mistakes and started to do stupid stuff like running into trees and bushes, it was a miracle the hunt didn't hear him as he stumbled and cursed his way through the woods running parallel to the hunt. At one point Percy got so off track he could no longer see or hear the hunt and began to run around in circles trying to find the. Eventually he gave up until he remembered his teleportation powers. He tried to think of the hunt and managed to teleport himself 50 yards behind them and resumed trailing them thinking Well at least I'm good at teleporting, just nothing else. In his clearing he soon saw a an orange light appear and take the form of Hestia, goddess of the hearth.

"Percy I now have your first mission ready." Was what she said.

Groaning Percy got up. "May I ask what am I going to have to do?"

"There is a girl who lives in Manchester who is badly abused by her stepfather and will soon be sold into the sex slave trade. I need you to save her and bring her to the hunt as I believe she would make a great hunter." Was her response. Percy grew angry at her words he never like hearing about a young child especially a defenseless girl being abused.

"Send me there and I can teleport us back." Percy said as he felt his weariness disappear at the thought of a mission.

Hestia smiled at his determination. "Very well I advise you to bring her back tomorrow night as you will need her to earn your trust before you bring her here and also I think the rest will do you well." With that flames engulfed Percy and he soon found himself in front of a home in a medium sized town. "Inside you will find her locked up in her room." Hestia said in his mind. Percy then wasted no time kicking the door down and entering the house to see a man casually sitting around drinking what smelled like rum.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want!" Was what he said upon seeing a strong looking 9 year old kick in his door. Percy immediately knew that he was the abusive stepfather and twisting the ring revealing a beautiful blue and sea green bow with wave patterns running the length of it and ending with a trident on both tips. Percy however wasted no time examining his bow despite it being the first time he had ever seen it. Quickly he pulled an arrow out of his quiver and aimed it at the man and released hitting him square in the chest with a gleaming iron pointed arrow killing him before he hit the floor. Percy then proceeded to examine the rest of the house to see a door with a chain on it. Walking up to it Percy turned his bow back into its ring form and uncapped his pen revealing a 3-foot long leaf-bladed sword that had one word on it, Anaklusmos or riptide. Percy then slashed the chains in half and slowly opened the door to see a 12-year old girl lying on her cot crying. Percy hesitantly walked up to her as she raised her head and looked at him as she heard him coming.

Surprised to see a 9 year old boy she asked, "Who are you and what are you doing here."

Percy finally got a chance to look at her face and was amazed to see red eyes and it went perfectly along with her brown hair and already muscular appearance. Quickly Percy realized that this girl was a daughter of Ares the war god. "It's alright I'm not going to hurt you, my mother asked me to take you to a friend." Percy said reassuringly, though he knew he was lying when he called Hestia his mother what he didn't know was that she was smiling warmly as he stated those words.

"How can I trust you all you men are the same you all want to beat me and abuse me like some toy." Dang she really is hunter material Is all Percy could think of.

"How about this then, I swear on the river Styx that I won't hurt you and that I will take you to a group of girls with similar views to yours and that will more than welcome you into their family." Thunder boomed sealing his oath. While not knowing what it signified she knew that he would keep his word so she got out of the bed and prepared to follow him. "Can I ask though, what is your name?"

"My name is Phoebe." Was her response.

"Okay just follow me and close your eyes when we enter the living room okay." Nodding in confirmation she closed her eyes and allowed him to take her hand and lead her out of the house. Percy decided that a little teleportation could come in handy and teleported them to the woods surrounding the city. "Okay you can open your eyes now." As she opened her eyes she was shocked to see that they were in the woods and sent a questioning look at Percy. "I have these powers of teleportation and of summoning food that I got from my mom." Percy explained.

"Then can you summon us something to eat?" She asked meekly.

"Of course I can." Percy responded as he closed his eyes and began to concentrate and pour all his energy into making something semi-edible to eat. Soon Percy opened his eyes to see a large plate of food in front of both him and Phoebe. They both began to dig in and to Percy the food tasted kind of bland but to Phoebe it must have been the best food she had ever had, that or she was starving, or both Ashe ate her food with gusto. They continued eating in silence until Phoebe was done with her plate and Percy only half done with his. Percy, already full saw Phoebe staring hungrily at his food and then decided to give it to her, which she immediately attacked with renewed vigor. Once she was done she leaned back, content.

"I know I told you my name but could you please tell me yours?" She asked.

"My name is Percy."

"Okay and next question where are you taking me?"

"I am taking you to lady Artemis and her hunters, who like you all hate men." Was Percy answer. Phoebe continued to ask questions about the mythological world and soon it was well past midnight when she stopped as she was out of questions.

"Well I don't know about you but I really need to sleep." She said as she promptly rolled over. Sleep sounded very good to Percy right now as following the hunt and the events with Phoebe left him drained and he too rolled over to go to sleep.

-X-

When Percy woke up he was confused, why was it still dark out? It was dark when I went to sleep. Then it hit him, I've been asleep since last night! He thought as he realized he slept all the way through the day. Percy then got up to wake Phoebe as she had not awoken yet. Shaking her from her slumber Percy knew he had to get back to the hunt with her. "Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe." Percy kept saying trying to get her to wake up. Finally he saw her eyes open and stare at him. "Phoebe we need to get a move on, do you trust me enough that I can teleport us?" Phoebe thought this was a stupid question, of course she trusted him he saved her from a fate worse than death. She nodded and Percy placed a hand on her shoulder and concentrated on taking them 200 yards away from the hunt. Upon arrival they began creeping up to where the hunt likely was. Percy was surprised to see they were still in the same clearing, as he got to the edge of the clearing the sounds of fighting could be heard. "Listen Phoebe I need you to stay in these bushes and don't come out unless I or one of the those girls in the silver clothing comes to get you okay." Percy said as he drew riptide and prepared to help the hunters.

"Wait where are you going?" Phoebe asked as she was close to tears at the thought of her only friend leaving.

"I need to help the hunters so I can keep all of you you safe." Percy explained. Not leaving her any more time to complain Percy immediately got up and charged the rear of the monsters. None of them saw him coming until it was too late he said reached their rear and immediately jumped on the back of a cyclops and stabbed it through the head and it exploded into golden dust. Once he hit the ground he felt a hellhound pouncing on him, as he rolled to the side he got up and stabbed it behind the left shoulder, killing it. Percy fought like a whirlwind killing monsters left and right, soon the hunters realized that he was on their side and began to give supporting fire. Soon all that was left was Percy and a field of golden dust, looking over Percy saw that the hunters had lost 3 members and almost none of them made it out unscathed. Percy soon felt anger at the deaths anger at himself mostly as he failed to protect them like he promised Hestia. He was soon shaken out of his thoughts by a commanding voice.

"Who are you boy, answer before I order my hunters to kill you."

"I am merely a passing friend." Was all Percy said. The girl grew angry at the hooded figure in front of her and prepared to kill him. "Before you kill him however you should know that there is a girl who has been badly mistreated by her stepfather sitting in the bushes over there." Percy said pointing at Phoebe. "I believe she will make a great hunter one day as she is strong-willed and a daughter of Ares." Percy said as he was soon engulfed in flames and taken away to his hiding spot in the woods.

Artemis POV(This whole time it has been third person POV just to let you know.)

What a stupid boy was all Artemis could of coming in here and defying my will like that. Artemis soon arrived at the spot the bot had indicated to see a girl sitting there looking at her in fear.

"Are are you Artemis?" She'd asked.

"Yes child I am Artemis." I replied. Such a silly question who else could I be?

"Percy told me to find you and ask about joining the hunters." She said. Soon she was cowering in fear at the look of anger on my face as she brought up the boy. Instantly I felt bad.

"Listen of course you can join the hunters I just felt angry when you mentioned the boy." I said trying to calm her down. Soon she accepted the hunter's pledge and I gave her my blessing. The boy was right about one thing though, I sense she will become a fantastic hunter one day. I thought as I saw her walk over to her new sisters to acquaint herself with them.

-X-

Percy POV 100 yards away from the hunter camp.

As I sat there watching Phoebe I couldn't help but feel proud of her as she had really grown on me as a friend and I knew she would finally find happiness in her life. I turned around to face my little camp to see Hestia sitting there with a smile on her face.

"You did well with your mission." Was all she said.

"But I allowed 3 hunter's to die, if I had been there sooner I-"

"Percy do not allow such thoughts to enter your mind just remember you saved a young girl from a fate far worse than death." She said. "Although calling me your mom was probably uncalled for."

I soon paled in fear thinking she would get angry and he was soon trying to apologize. "I am so sor-" I began only to be cut off yet again by Hestia.

"Please Percy it is perfectly fine, in fact it is kind of nice to be called a mother." After a brief moment of silence Hestia soon asked me one question that would change my life for the better. "Percy could I, with your permission, adopt you as my son." I was dumbstruck, I never thought to be asked this by Hestia.

"Of course, I would love to have you as a mom." I replied enthusiastically. Hestia then stepped up to me and began chanting in an ancient language and soon I was engulfed in orange light.

"It is done, you are now my son and I think you will now have more power of food and it should taste better." She said that last part with a smirk as my last attempts at summoning food have been dreadful in taste. "Now Percy I must be taking my leave I hope you continue to do a good job in helping the hunt." She said as she teleported away. Soon the weariness of the battle caught up with me and I dropped like a rock into sleep.

A/N so yeah this was a lot longer than any other chapter, I know because it took two hours straight of of writing to finish this so reviews would be really nice as they make me feel as though you guys also care. MOG out


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Sorry for the late update this week has been absolutely crazy for me and I only now have the time to do this. Also I have been reading all the reviews and will try to fix any errors you guys spotted. So enjoy… **I redid part of the story as a helpful and very long review showed me some errors I made in Hestia's conversation with Percy.**

Chapter 5

Time skip- 5 years (Is now 1773)

Percy ran through the forest leaping from branch to branch as he followed the hunt. In the last 5 years following the hunt had become second nature to him. As he continued to follow the hunt he had grown into an imposing figure, standing over 6'2" and built of solid muscle. Percy also had grown in his skills such as running through the trees and Percy also soon noticed that he was uncanny when it came to the bow and could hit bullseye after bullseye from 200 yards. His food powers had also grown and now he could summon a full buffet of delicious food with little energy. Percy also noticed some other weird things, he could not only instantly determine where he was from merely looking at the stars and moon but he could also talk to all wildlife which he would often do to pass the time when the hunt was camped for extended periods.

In the past 5 years the hunt had seen more success than it ever had and had grown to record size. It now had 40 hunters thanks to the aid of the mysterious boy Percy. Percy had been responsible for the delivery of nearly a dozen new hunters and when the hunt required him the most he was always there to aid them and it really began to cut down the casualties.

Artemis had grown to ignore the fact that a faceless boy, Percy she believed his name was, was interfering with her hunt but she never pursued the issue as all he ever did was help the hunt and best she could tell he held no romantic relationships with any hunters.

(Percy POV)

The sun was now setting and from the best I could tell the hunt was setting up camp. Soon they had found a good campsite and I had found another tree to sleep in. After summoning some food I sat down to eat in a branch where I could keep an eye on the hunt. As soon as I was finished i felt that another person was sharing my branch with me.

"Lady Hestia shall I assume that you are the one sitting with me?" I asked already knowing the answer, she was the only person who ever visited.

"I already told you Percy, don't call me Lady and you really don't have to call me Hestia either. Mom will work just fine." She said.

"Very well mom." I said with a smile, I had really grown to love having a mother again. "But still though to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

When no answer was forthcoming I looked over at mom and saw a mental battle was occurring in her head. Finally she made her decision in whether to speak or not and while I would not know for a while, her decision would change my life forever. "Percy" she began, "I need you to reveal yourself to the hunt and join their ranks."

I sat there dumbfounded. Why would she suggest such a thing? Did she want me to be killed by the hunters? "Mom you know what they will do when they see me." Was all I could say.

"Yes Percy I am well aware of their habits regarding the treatment of men but I feel you will be different as you already have good relations with them so they will at least not kill you on sight."

"But why would I need to do this? Have I not done a good enough job protecting the hunt?" I asked.

"No Percy, this has nothing to do with your abilities." She said reassuringly.

"Then why?"

"Percy the main reason is Zeus's arrogance." She explained.

"Then why shouldn't he deal with it!?" I was kind of ticked right now. I mean why do I have to risk my life because of Zeus?

"Percy I really don't know. However I will explain to you what I do know." I nodded at her to continue. "10 years ago when Poseidon's children, who are currently in control of Parliament right now, beat the French who are lead by children of Hades, Zeus became increasingly paranoid because of Poseidon's growing power through the British Empire. However, in the New World thoughts of revolution are being spread by the children of Zeus so he and his children can break the power Poseidon has over the world. Should the war run its projected course the borders that separate Tartarus and the real world will grow weaker and soon monsters will find it increasingly easy to roam the world again as the chaos on earth coupled with the weakened state the gods would be left in would allow for monsters to destroy the world."

I was a little confused by her long explanation. "So you want me to kill all of Zues' children so the Revolution is stopped?" I asked.

"No the revolution must occur." Now I really was confused.

"But if it occurs the world will be ruled by monsters."

"That is where the mission gets quite difficult. You must convince the hunt to go with you and you must ensure the success of the rebellion while also preventing the army of monsters from destroying the human world." She said.

"I still don't see why the rebellion has to be successful though."

"It has to be successful so that America will be created as that is the next destination for the gods. Zeus, again in his arrogance does not want the power of Western Civilzation to lie inside a country led by one of his brothers and so he wants it in America where his children would be in power. If he his idea does not succeed and Poseidon's children and thus him retain control of Western Civilization then Zeus' paranoia will continue to grow until he declares war on Poseidon and starts a civil war on Olympus which would destroy the power of the gods and the only possible outcome being the returned rule of the titans.

The realization of the how important this mission was finally came to me and I was shocked. "You are willing to place the entire fate of Western Civilization and that also of the gods in my hands?"

"Yes Percy you and the hunt are more than capable of succeeding in this and I have complete faith in you."

"So what do I do first?"

"First you must go to the hunt and make them accept you. When they trust you you must break this news to them. You have two years to have them accept you before you must sail for America."

"2 years should be enough time." I said confidently.

"Well I'm glad you have some hope of this succeeding but 2 years is a miserable amount of time for eternal man-haters to learn to trust a man." My confident smirk instantly faded. I had never thought of that. "Don't lose hope yet Percy. No matter how difficult things seem there is always hope." She looked at the moon worried and when I followed her gaze I saw that it was nearing 10 o'clock, which is when the hunt turns in for the night. "You must go now my son and remember the fate of the gods rests upon you so don't let us down." And with that I was knocked out of the tree by a strong gust of wind and as I fell to the ground I could only think of one thing, How the hell did I get myself into this?

A/N Kind of a filler chapter but now it is revealed what the next few chapters will be based on. I hope you like the direction I am taking this and if you do please review and if you don't still review. **As I said earlier with a review from TheMasterTrident13 I was able to fix something that was wrong with the story which is really what I want the most.**


	6. Chapter 6

A/N So I found myself with a bunch of down time which is true luxury for me these days so I decided to write another chapter. This will be where Percy first meets the hunt so hopefully I don't completely botch this. So as always enjoy…

Chapter 6

Percy POV

As I fell out of the tree I could feel branches and twigs snap under me quite loudly. Soon I felt myself hit something soft and I quickly sunk into a large mound of snow. As I climbed out I could hear sounds of a minor skirmish coming from the camp. Curious I got up to see the hunt battling a small pack of hellhounds, about 8-10 in total. I knew I didn't really need to help them but I felt obliged to and pulled out my bow and quickly put down nearly half the hellhounds in my surprise attack. However, the rest of the hellhounds noticed me and surrounded me. Putting my bow away as it would be useless in close quarters I drew riptide and got in my fighting stance. Soon I felt the hellhound on my left charge me and jumped out of the way and grabbed some of its fur and pulled myself onto its back. The hellhound didn't really like what I was doing and immediately began trying to buck me off so I stabbed it through the back of its head. Before it could explode into dust I jumped off its back and onto another hellhound's. Before I could secure myself on its back it bucked me off, throwing me a few yards forwards where I stuck the landing on both feet and decapitated one the hellhounds on my right. Now with only two remaining the hunt seemed to finally notice where the hellhounds had charged off to in the forest as hunting calls soon filled the forest. 10 girls stepped into the clearing as the hunt had split into 4 search parties.

"Permission to kill milady?" One of the shorter girls in the front asked.

"Kill the hellhounds but not the boy I want to question him." Artemis replied as she stepped forward from the ring of hunters. Soon the sound of arrows whizzing through the air pervaded and the two hellhounds were immediately killed. "Now boy, I demand that you reveal yourself to me now."

Looking around me I saw that all the hunter's with Artemis were girls that I had hand delivered to the hunt. Thanking the fates that most of these girls were potential allies of mine I knew that I would have at least some help in the matter of whether I lived to see tomorrow or not. As I lowered my hood that had concealed my face I heard gasps of shock and surprise from all around me and I quickly felt myself get tackled by 9 squealing girls. When I was finally able to get up I was surrounded by a bunch of very excited girls and a shocked Artemis.

"What can I say, I have helped all of these girls in the past." I explained to her.

Artemis looked conflicted as to whether she should accept my explanation or just kill me. All she said was, "Very well then but don't expect the rest of the hunt to like you." and with that she stormed off in the direction of the hunt.

"Percy are going to stay with us this time?" A voice from the past that I recognized as Phoebe's said.

"Of course I am Phoebe." I said as she began to bubble with excitement.

Soon I was following the girls back to the hunt where I saw Artemis and 30 other girls waiting for me with bows at the ready.

"Well this is an interesting welcoming committee." I said.

A girl who was standing next to Artemis and wearing a tiara was the first to respond. "Leave this camp now or you shall die painfully boy." She said.

"I know you want me to leave but on the orders of Hestia and for the sake of the world I must stay with you." I replied leaving a look of pure shock on Artemis' face.

"Why would Hestia order you here, the hunt requires no aid, especially from a boy." The girl in the tiara said as she drew her bow and aimed right at me.

"Stand down Zoe. Hestia just sent me confirmation of what you said and however much I hate it I must allow you entry." This decree earned immense cries of protest from the 30 hunters with Zoe and satisfaction from the 10 with me.

"But Percy how is the world in danger?" Phoebe asked.

I didn't want to reveal everything to them as it might scare them especially the younger ones but I knew I had to earn their trust so I went ahead and told them everything about the coming war between the children of Zeus and Poseidon. When I mentioned how this war was because of Zues' arrogance Artemis appeared particularly angry. When I was done with telling them many looked worried because of such bleak prospects and the thought that the entire world depended on them.

Artemis saw this and asked, "Perseus some of the hunters who you aided told me you had a particular power over food. Would you care to show us?" I smirked as I saw the plot behind the request, she wanted me to lighten the mood with some food. Complying with her request I summoned a full buffet of food on their mess hall tables and saw that many hunters looked at the food with disgust while the others, primarily the ones who knew me immediately went to the tables and started to chow down on the food. The other hunters apprehensively approached the table as they did not trust my food but the sight of the others so obviously enjoying the food forced their hands and they sat down and began to eat.

Seeing that the hunters were taken care of I began to walk to a secluded area to eat my meal in peace until Artemis called me back. "Boy where are you going? Are you not going to eat with us?" She asked.

"I prefer to eat alone milady." I said.

"Well as much as I hate to say it you are a hunt member now so you must eat with us." She said that last part with so much venom I shivered in fear at her death glare. As I sat down I noticed many of the hunters were barely restraining themselves from getting up and stabbing at the table. _This is going to take a lot longer than I thought._

A/N So did y'all like it? I know this chapter really didn't have much of the good stuff in it but that is coming later I promise. So good or bad please review as that is the only way I can make it better. (Even if it comes off as a flame it's okay but don't flame for the sake of flaming)


	7. Chapter 7

A/N So sorry for so long without an update this week has been an absolute nightmare for me. So as usual enjoy…

Chapter 7

-Time Skip 6 months-

Percy POV

The last six months of my life had been absolute hell. The hunt had started with only minor pranks that for the most part were kind of funny, but soon they began to escalate to them "accidentally" shooting me. It soon got so bad they could only do their pranks when Artemis was called away to Olympus as she soon began to have to put a stop to many of the pranks. Artemis, she was the only bright spot in my life right now, she was the one who would always help me with the hunt. Over the last six months I almost felt a growing bond with her which scared me because I knew what the consequences of such a bond with her would entail. Today though, the sounds of wolves howling in the woods could be heard for miles as they closed in on their target, me. The hunters had released the wolves on me again once Artemis left for Olympus. I as looked towards the trees that surrounded me I saw the wolves' eyes and I took off running again. As I continued to run through the woods I continued to hit branches and trip over roots. I no longer was a graceful tree runner because I was so tired and still had to outrun the hunt's wolves who seemed to never tire. I heard the howls begin to quiet. Finally the wolves were called home, I looked down and was disgusted with what I saw. I was covered in blood from getting cut by tree limbs and I had twigs stuck everywhere. I knew that Artemis was soon to return because the wolves left my trail. As I began the long walk home I soon heard more howls but these sounded different, these were the howls of hellhounds. I began to run back to the hunt thinking that they were in trouble. Soon I saw the hellhounds as they ran towards the hunt's location. I drew my bow and began to fire on the run at any hellhound I saw. Soon the hellhounds began to attack me and I summoned my sword from its pen form and slashed at any hellhound that came within my reach. Soon I was running into the clearing the hunt was camped in with hundreds of hellhounds on my heels. The hunt soon saw me and began to walk out laughing at my misfortune which was caused by their pranks. I sprinted towards them and their smirks all disappeared once they saw the army that was following me. All of the hunters turned around and sprinted off for their weapons except for me and the three who were on guard duty plus Artemis. The five of us together stood our ground against the hellhounds knowing that if we could not hold them the hellhounds would massacre the rest hunt who were still unarmed. The large mass of hellhounds came closer and soon it was apparent that there were also werewolves present. Seeing this I drew a silver hunting knife that I acquired when I first joined the hunt and charged at the horde knowing this could very possibly be my last battle.

The five of us began to tear through the hellhounds and werewolves cutting a swathe of destruction through their ranks. Soon arrows began to rain down on our enemies and before I knew it we had defeated the assorted beasts. As I looked around the area that surrounded our camp and all I saw was utter destruction. Nearly every hunter had wounds and nearly a dozen lay unmoving. I was brought out of my state of sadness when I heard the sounds of a struggle nearby. Picking up my knife and sword I ran towards the sounds where I came upon a heavily wounded Artemis dueling multiple werewolves. Artemis looked amazing as she moved gracefully from werewolf to werewolf killing each one within seconds, her auburn hair billowing out with every movement and her silver eyes which I had noticed their beauty before but seemed to glow a little extra in combat. Soon Artemis and one werewolf stood apart staring each other down.

"Stand down Lycaon and your trip to Tartarus will be pain free." Artemis said as I realized she was facing the king of the werewolves. Lycaon's only response was to lunge at Artemis who attempted to sidestep his attack only for her leg to buckle under her weight because of a long gash on her thigh. As Lycaon jumped he turned into his wolf form and sunk his jaws around Artemis' neck and clamped down. I watched on in horror and sprinted to try and save her. Artemis struggled to try and break free of his grasp but her efforts were in vain. Seeing me approaching Lycaon began to shake his neck back and forth and soon a loud snap could be heard and Artemis' limp body fell to the ground. I was halted in my tracks. Artemis the goddess of the hunt was severely wounded and most likely dead. I remembered all the times she had tried to help me and rage filled me at the thought of a world without her. I charged at Lycaon but my anger made me clumsy and he was able to pin under his massive weight and I dropped my knife, the only weapon I had that could kill him. I began to grope for my silver knife in the snow as he prepared for the killing blow. Soon my hand wrapped around a hilt and praying to the gods it was my silver knife I stabbed upward with it and stabbed Lycaon through the heart.

Lycaon immediately dissolved into shadows and with his oppressive weight finally off me I was able to crawl over to Artemis who was using the last of her godly strength to stay alive.

When I made it over there she looked up at me and looked at my hand. Confused I also looked down to see that wasn't holding my knife but the very knife that belonged to Artemis. Apologizing quickly I tried to hand it back over but she stopped me from doing so.

"No Perseus, you must keep it for it has chosen you as its next owner." She said.

"But why would it chose me I am a m-?"

Artemis quickly cut me off at this, "Just because you are a man doesn't mean you can't be chosen to wield my knife for it chooses its owner by their character and devotion to the hunt."

"But I'm not worthy I-"

"Percy accept it my knife has chosen you, but we have more important things to discuss before I head to Tartarus." She began, "You must continue with the hunt's mission to America." She said.

I was shocked only Hestia, Hecate, and I were supposed to know about this. "How did you k-?"

"Please Perseus I know about all that is said in and around my camp." She explained. I only nodded in response wishing for her to continue. "I think now is the time to leave with the hunt for America because I fear that events are moving even faster apace then I thought as this large band of hellhounds and werewolves mixed together showed us." I nodded in agreement, hellhounds and werewolves never worked together and seeing so many together meant something else was at work here. I promised her that I would take the hunt to America and with that she let out a long breath and all remaining color in her eyes left her. I began to feel the sting of tears in my eyes as I punched the ground in frustration causing a minor earthquake in my rage. Once I calmed down a little I picked Artemis' limp form up and began to carry her to the camp so the hunters could know. As I entered all of the hunters that weren't too injured to do so got up looking at me carrying Artemis.

"Why are you carrying milady boy?" The lieutenant of the hunt Zoe asked.

With tears in my eyes I announced loud enough for all the hunt to hear. "Artemis was killed during the attack by Lycaon."

All of the hunters soon cried out in a mixture of emotions some in anger, some in sadness, and all of them in complete confusion. "How did this come to happen?" Zoe said through her sobs of sadness.

I then explained everything from when their wolves quit chasing me to all the way to Artemis' death. "Artemis died the way she would want to which was protecting the hunt from danger." I pronounced more to console myself to her death than to console the hunt. I explained to them Artemis' request that we leave for America immediately and the younger ones looked fearful that the war was already upon them while the older ones has looks of hope that they might be able to serve Artemis and also avenge her death.

After all the dead hunters were rounded up, placed in shrouds, and burned the fates themselves came to take Artemis' body for her funeral on Olympus. Soon I was sitting at the top of a hill facing the east when I noticed someone sitting down next to me. Looking over I smiled when I saw it was Phoebe who behind Artemis had become my best friend in the hunt.

"Long day huh?" She asked.

"Yeah it was." I responded sounding very depressed to her.

"Look Percy I know that Artemis was a good friend of yours but you can't brood on her death." She said.

"That's not really the reason why I'm here." I hesitated not knowing how to go on, finally finding the words I continued, "I'm worried that without Artemis we won't be able to accomplish the job in America."

"Percy I know that our prospects were bleak before and are even worse know but there is always hope and Artemis wouldn't want us to give up hope, not now and not ever." She said encouragingly. She stood up and offered her hand to me to help me up which I took. Looking forward I saw the sun rising and smiled. "What are you smiling about?" She asked.

"I guess I was thinking that we might just have a chance because we have one thing the monsters never will have and that is each other." I said as I threw an arm around her shoulder as we both looked off at the sunrise.

A/N So any good? There may be a grammar error here and there because I wrote this around midnight. If you see any major plot mistakes please review and I will try and fix them. Good or bad please review because those are what inspire me to continue writing this.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N So with this story hitting 7,500 views and 100 followers I will give you all a special treat and make a particularly long story. I'm also doing this because I'm bored out of my mind but mostly because I love you guys. So enjoy…

Chapter 8

Time Skip 1 Year

The Woods Outside of Boston, June 1775

Percy POV

"Percy watch out!" I heard from Phoebe on my left. Upon hearing this I ducked for a spear to go flying over my head. I turned and found the centaur who threw and put an arrow in between his eyes. I nodded in appreciation to Phoebe for the heads up and saw a telekhine sneaking behind her which I put down with another arrow. Looking around I saw that all of the monsters we were ambushing had been killed and made my way over to Phoebe. Over the past year we had become nearly inseparable as she and had become the lieutenant to me as I currently led the hunt while Zoe led the other half of the hunt. My decision to go with co-leaders was one that many did not agree with mainly because it went against tradition but when I explained my reasoning that with this system we could more easily send the hunt on two missions at once many saw the reason behind my idea. Over the past year large monster parties have cropped up everywhere some numbering all the way to the thousands. For groups like this I would summon Zoe and her half to aid us but when the groups are of medium size like the one we just ambushed I would send Zoe to attack another group usually in the southern colonies as I had kind of split the colonies in half for where each half of the hunt went, Zoe in the south and me in the north. The group we had attacked was one that slipped a particularly large gap in the magical borders between Earth and Tartarus. The gap had been caused by a massive spike in violence and the ensuing chaos violence always brings, the source of the this violence was the Battle Of Bunker Hill which was about to be fought about three miles away from us.

"These monsters attacks really are becoming a nuisance." I said to Phoebe as I finally reached her.

"Yes they are especially because they only seem to want to target American forces." She said.

"That's true and it is beginning to worry me because I fear that a higher power is at work he and wants Zeus to lose."

"That's possible because if the Americans and Zeus' children lose then Zeus will start a civil war on Olympus which would provide a perfect opportunity to conquer the Olympians." I nodded in confirmation with what she just said because I had had similar thoughts myself but in true I was scared about the prospect of the monsters being organized at also of the thought of someone powerful enough to control this many monsters.

"I figure all we can do is just keep the monsters at bay and hope the Americans can win the war before things get especially hairy over here." I said getting up to go check on the hunters under my command. I had hunters that were more experienced so in my inspection I saw that we had no deaths and only minor injuries. Zoe was more than happy to give me the experienced hunters as she wanted to train the new hunters we found in America and also because in my half of America there were more monsters as this was where most events of the Revolution were occurring. One problem that I thought I would have was the replenishment of fallen hunters but due to the suppression of women in Puritan society in the north finding new girls was remarkably easy.

I soon gathered all the hunters to address them, "Alright hunters good job today with this victory we are now one step closer to victory. Now we will need to head back to our base camp because Apollo messaged me saying he urgently needed to talk to me." Our base camp was in New York because of its large population and because of its close proximity to New England where there was the most monsters without being too far away from the southern colonies.

New York

As my hunters walked up to our base which we had built in the trees for concealment from both mythical and mortal eyes we saw that Zoe had already returned from her mission which was a raid on a monster outpost in Virginia which was known to have been attacking colonial forces in the area.

"I trust your mission was met with success." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Of course it did, we simply climbed right over their walls and killed them all in their sleep." She said with a smile.

"How did the younger ones do?" I asked.

"They all did admirably. In fact, that new girl from Boston looks like she might be one of the best hunters ever one day." She answered.

"Atalanta?"

"Yes, for a daughter of Aphrodite she is truly a natural at fighting."

"Well that's good we need to start finding as many girls like her as we can."

"Why? We have been doing a very good job so far in America." She asked.

When I explained to her Phoebe's and my thoughts she seemed to think on it and soon also came to the same conclusion. "That is true and I have also wondered why the monster attacks aren't as random as they should be."

"Well anyway I need to go talk to Apollo because he said he needed to see me."

"See you later Percy, and make sure you keep Apollo in check please." She asked.

"Of course I will." I responded with a knowing smile, she and Apollo had had some confrontations over his recent increase in flirting with the hunters. The last time this happened he left our base with about 3 arrows sticking out of his private areas.

I walked towards my personal tree house to see a very annoyed Apollo waiting for me.

"It's about time you got here Percy." He said.

"Well I'm sorry but I had to check on my hunters first."

"Very well but remember though it is not wise to keep a god waiting for extended periods of time."

"Alright but what do you need from me though?" I asked.

Apollo appeared hesitant to answer but after I motioned for him to go on he finally said, "There has been a new prophecy issued that has direct ties to you."

"We'll go on spill the beans I don't have all day." I said with growing impatience.

"Very well then I will tell you but don't say I didn't warn you. Well here it is,

In the final days of the hunt

A hero must pull off a deadly stunt

In the war the jailer shall rise

To try and claim the eternal prize."

I sat there in shock, the next great prophecy had been issued and in it the end of the hunt was specifically mentioned.

"Like I said I warned you." Apollo said.

"Do we have any ideas what the last three lines mean?"

"I have already talked to Athena and she thinks that the second line is pretty self explanatory while the 3rd line is more difficult. Athena believes that the jail or it is referring to would be Kampê the jailer of the cyclops during the reign of the titans which if she is right is definitely not good. Meanwhile the eternal prize would have to be control of Olympus." Apollo explained.

"Is that all?"

"No there is something else, I asked Athena if this would work and she said it might but either way this plan is still completely crazy. I had an idea for how we could turn the tide in our favor."

"And what is it?"

"I suggest that a demigod be sent to Tartarus to find Artemis who I felt has already reformed and to uses the weakened borders between the two realms to get back.

"What that's crazy why would we just send a demigod off to his or her death?!" I was dumbfounded, why are we just randomly sending our forces to their deaths.

"Listen to me Percy, if we send someone we could possibly get our best fighter back and also I don't think that demigod would have to survive for very long as Artemis can detect a demigod's scent."

"But so can every monster in Tartarus." I complained.

"Well obviously the demigod would have to be able to survive for a little bit." Apollo said conceding my point.

"Listen your plan may work but it also may not but if a demigod goes down there I will be the one to do it." I said.

"Now wait Percy we can't send out leader in this war down to a likely death."

"But if this is as important as you say it is then we need to send the best demigod we have." I countered. "Besides as I said earlier monsters would be able to detect any demigod we send and that demigod would have to be a good fighter because as you said earlier the demigod would have to be able to survive and I am the best. I don't mean to brag but we both know I'm the best possible candidate."

Finally Apollo seemed to give in to my arguments. "Fine IF we decide to do this then you can be the one to go."

"I thought you wanted to do this though." I retorted.

"Well that was before you convinced me that you were our only viable option in terms of who goes down there." He said.

"Listen you were right though, this NEEDS to happen and it needs to happen now. I will go and tell the hunt what we decided and break the news of this new prophecy to them." I said getting up and promptly walking out before Apollo could object.

I called all the hunters together and explained to them everything Apollo and I had just discussed, their reactions to me leaving were better than I thought it would be. When I asked them why they were okay with this it was Zoe who answered me. "I personally don't like you leaving as you are our leader and best fighter and you have actually done a good job for a boy" I smiled at that' "but we need Artemis back or else everything we have one might be lost when Kampê rises with her army."

"Well then if everyone is okay with this I will leave the hunt in Zoe's possession. Now Apollo what needs to be done so I can go into Tartarus?" I asked.

First we need to find a rift into Tartarus and then we send you on your merry way." He said.

"Okay Apollo, Zoe, and Phoebe will come with me to find one of these rifts while the rest of you continue with your normal schedules."

Several hours had passed and we had not even seen a single monster much less a rift.

"This is hopeless!" Phoebe said throwing her hands in the air out of exasperation.

"I will admit I was hoping for some quicker results." Zoe said.

I will admit I was stumped but after some thought the answer was so obvious to me I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it earlier, "Apollo you need to go ahead and leave because no monsters will come out when there is a god nearby."

"You're right I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier." The god said. "Very well then best of luck Percy bring my sister back." With that Apollo stepped up and hugged me goodbye.

He stepped back and looked at Zoe for her to only say one word, "Don't".

With that Apollo flashed out and almost immediately and rift opened next to us and nearly 50 cyclops poured out. The 3 of us simply drew our bows and opened fire cutting down half of them before the could reach us and when they did I drew riptide and the two hunters drew their hunting knifes. We soon made short work of the monsters and all that was left of them was dust and a rift that was slowly closing. Looking back I saw both girls hesitate until they both walked forward and embraced me in a hug.

"It's nice to see y'all like me more than a god." I said smiling.

Zoe promptly punched me in gut and I blended over wheezing she whispered in my ear, "Don't push your luck." After that she pulled me to my feet and pushed me towards the rift and I slowly walked into the darkness and the unknown...

A/N So a little gift here because this literally took me 4 hours to write so please review as always.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N Sorry for the long delay in updating but when you only review twice I tend to take a lot longer. So anyway enjoy…

Chapter 9

Percy POV

Barely 15 minutes into Tartarus and I've already nearly died twice. The second I stepped out of the portal I ran straight into a group of 6 cyclops which is normally is a cake walk but since I'm in Tartarus it seems all the monsters are on steroids. The cyclops all seemed to move with unnatural speed and one came awfully close to bashing my skull in. Fortunately I was able to kill all of them just to fall into a ravine I had wandered into during the fight. As I fell I thought "only I could have luck this bad". Once I found a ledge to hold onto I was able to climb up back to the top but my hands were cut up and I could now barely grip my sword, perfect. I began to trudge my way through Tartarus in search of Artemis.

As I wandered through Tartarus I began to feel completely hopeless. The desolate and bleak landscape seemed to stretch on forever with nothing in sight. Even the air seemed to want to kill me as it felt like it was trying to restrict my breathing and choke me to death.

Soon I began to realize that I never packed anything in terms of food and water and now I was starving and thirsty. I remembered something a son of Athena named Alex told me while I was at Camp Half-Blood and that was that the River Phlegethon's waters could be drunk to keep a person going. With a new destination in mind I set off in a random direction and prayed it was the correct way and set off.

Soon I was barely able to stand but I soon saw a faint orange glow on the horizon and felt hope for the first time since I came down here as I soon was at the banks of the Phlegethon. I seriously began to doubt my convictions as to whether this water was safe or not as I was looking at a river made of fire. As I heard sounds from the first monsters I had seen in hours I knew I had to make a decision about the river and I decided to take a leap of faith and stuck my hands in the river to get some water and found out it was actually cool to the touch and held the water to my mouth to drink it. As it went down my throats the water burned and gagged but was able to swallow it and the fire soon ended in my belly and I fell to the ground in agony as mouth, throat, and stomach were burning from the fiery water. When the pain subsided I got up to notice that there were no monsters anymore. Curious I got up and headed to where the sounds of monsters were originally coming from. When I had travelled about a mile I noticed a broken alter off to my right and I headed towards it wondering what it was. When I could see down into the bowl shaped altar I saw a sight that filled me with joy as I saw all kinds of food: barbecue, hamburgers, French fries, and everything else you could think of. Not paying any attention to my surroundings I immediately picked up a hamburger and settled down to eat it and as I brought it to my mouth a silver arrow came out of nowhere and plucked it out of my hands. I uncapped riptide and prepared for a fight. Instead someone who wanted to fight me I saw the person that I had come down into the living hell for approach me.

"Perseus why are you down here?" She asked.

"I came down here for you, we need you or we will lose the war." I explained.

"Ok, but why you though? Don't the Hunters need you to lead them?"

I then began to explain to her about everything that had happened to the hunt since Artemis's death and I explained my reasoning for me coming down here.

When I finished my explanation Artemis stepped forward and did the last thing I ever expected her to do, she hugged me. "Thank you Perseus, I know how difficult being in Tartarus must be for you."

I was in shock, here was the man-hating goddess of the hunt who while being my friend had always been kind of frosty towards me, and here she is hugging me. What felt weirder though was that her in my arms just felt right, I couldn't explain it but it felt natural.

"Umm Perseus you can let go now."

"Oh right, umm sorry." I said as we broke apart. Unless it was an effect of Tartarus her cheeks were burning red. "So what now?"

"I don't really know, I've been staying here at the shrine to Hermes as some of the food sacrificed to the fire in Camp Half-Blood ends up here."

So that's what this is. "Well our rescue plan was for me to find you and then find a rift that we could use to get back into the mortal world."

"Now who in the world could come up with a plan where our only chance of escape is based on chance?" She asked

"Apollo."

"Figures, only my brother could be stupid enough to do that." I decided to stay silent as I too had decided on this plan. "Whatever, just grab something to eat because you have first watch." She apparently wasn't going to let me argue about this so I settled down with a plate of barbecue and began to scan the horizon.

Artemis POV

I felt very confused right now. I had just willing hugged a man, even if I kind of liked him as a friend I am the goddess of virginity and a man hating goddess no less and here I am hugging him. What worried me the most was how safe and secure I felt in his arms, I would almost go as far as to say I liked it. Normally if a man so much as looked at me the wrong way I would turn him into a jackalope and hunt him but I had let Percy do what no man, not even Orion had ever done before. Confused I must have slipped into the realm of Hypnos without even realizing it.

When I woke up I felt strangely refreshed and noticed Percy was still on guard duty. "How long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"I don't know but I would guess about 18 hours as dinner and breakfast from camp has arrived." He said.

"Why the hades did you never wake me up!? I would have been more than happy to go on guard duty and let you sleep!"

"Please my lady, you needed the sleep more than I did." He said in a pacifying voice trying to calm me down.

I wouldn't take it though, "Perseus this is serious. What if you had nodded off and we both got killed?"

I noticed Percy start to get a little annoyed but in his speech he sounded nothing worried about me. "I'm glad I didn't but I mostly did it as a favor for you as you have been down here far longer than I have and I'm willing to bet you didn't get much sleep while you were at it. Now let's quit arguing about this and get a move on to find a portal."

"Why can't we wait here where we have a steady supply of food though?" I asked

"Because the portals only seem to open for monsters and to find a portal we need to find monsters about to cross into the mortal world."

Nodding in agreement I decided to pack what little food and beverages I could carry and soon noticed Percy doing the same. Soon we set off in search of a party of monsters to hitch a ride with.

3 days. 3 days is how long I figured we had been traveling through Tartarus without any luck. We had been following along the banks of the Phlegethon as a reference. However the current problem was we had run out of food this morning and that was even with our super strict rationing of it. Because of the nature of Tartarus and the constant walking we were both about to drop when Percy recommended something absurd.

"Artemis we need to drink from the Phlegethon or else we will soon die down here."

"Why would we do that?! In case you haven't noticed the river is made out of fire."

"Look I know you have your doubts but I have already tried and while the taste is awful it will at least keep us on our feet so we need to do this." I was still questioning whether this would be a good idea or not though.

Percy POV

I noticed how she was indecisive about this whole idea so I decided that the only way to convince her of its safety was to drink first so I dropped to my knees and grabbed a handful of water and drank as much of it as I could before the burning of the water hit me. I tried to remain upright despite the pain because painful or not, Artemis and I needed to drink this. Artemis seeing me do it tentatively dropped to her knees as well and slowly lowered her hands into the water. When she drank the water I saw her begin to spit it out as the burning was almost too much for her. I soon crawled over to her side and saw the pain of the water was about to best her and wrapped one arm around her waist and began to slowly rub her back hoping to comfort her into swallowing the water. I saw her swallow it with great difficulty and I helped her to her feet. We she stood up she immediately slapped me.

"That was for not warning me about the water's burning taste." She said.

I felt her reason was hardly justified but I was looking out for her best interests so I didn't really mind it.

Artemis POV

In truth I didn't really slap him for the taste of the water, I had a feeling it would burn but I slapped him more for putting an arm around me. The only reason I hid the reason for me slapping him was because it felt good to have him comforting me through that. When he didn't do anything in response I knew that he really was looking out for my needs, I was touched. No man had ever tried to help me, get slapped, and then not do anything in retaliation. Heck no man had ever tried to help me before, but that is probably because of my nature towards them more than anything.

"Anyway we need to keep going on the same route and hope we get lucky." He said as he began walking without another word.

Percy POV

We walked in silence for several hours every two hours or so we would need to drink more water from the Phlegethon. Each time the water felt less and less helpful but the burning pain we got from drinking it was there every time. I was brought out of my thoughts when Artemis began to sway precariously while we were walking. Soon she pitched forward and would have fallen face first on the ground but I managed to catch her. She gave an almost imperceptible nod in thanks and I allowed her to prop her weight on me as we continued on even slower than before. Soon for probably the first time in my life I felt relieved when I heard monsters milling about in front of us. Maybe we would finally be able to find a rift. As I round a bend in the ravine we had been walking through I noticed several hundred monsters standing around a rift. I felt Artemis take her weight off my shoulders and noticed she had drawn her hunting knifes.

"Well I guess we knew we'd have to get our hands a little dirty to get out of here." She said.

"I know I was just hoping for a few dozen monsters not a few hundred." I said groaning in despair.

"Never fear Percy with the two of us I think we might be able to pull through."

"I wish I share your optimis- wait did you just call me Percy?"

"Yes, you have earned my grudging respect while we have been trapped in this hellhole so you have earned the right to be called by your normal name." She stated.

"Oh goody" I said while rolling my eyes.

"Anyway I suppose we should do something about getting out of here." She said as she began to charge at the monsters. Seeing this I ran after her and attacked the monsters right on her heels. Almost immediately things went south as our surprise plan seemed to fail, plus the fact that monsters had enhanced abilities and Artemis and I were about to drop from exhaustion made us easy targets for the various monsters. As a slashed at a hellhound's throats I saw Artemis get clubbed in the ribs by a cyclops and she went down and I could no longer see her. Soon a sense of hopelessness similar to when she first died began to envelope me until it all turned into anger and I began to see red as began to carve a path of destruction towards where she was knocked down. I jumped on top of a cyclops head to see one of its brethren rear back for the finishing blow against Artemis and she could do nothing about it due to her ribs which most likely were shattered because of the hit she had suffered. I soon felt everything around me go hazy as I also felt a serious drain on my already waning strength only for the cyclops about to execute Artemis begin to jump around in pain. Only then did I notice what I was doing, I was literally boiling his blood inside of his body. I finally was able to reach Artemis and saw just she damage that cyclops had inflicted on her, her entire was covered in ichor and I could she several ribs sticking out of her skin.

"Percy you need to leave me, I will only slow you down and you need to make it back to the hunt!" She yelled at me.

"No my lady I am not leaving you down here even if it is the last thing I do!" I killed a hellhound that leapt at me with almost inhuman speed and picked up Artemis and carried her over my shoulder, ignoring her cry of pain when her ribs hit my shoulder. It was low progress, I was desperately trying to make it to the portal while carrying Artemis and fighting of all the monsters. I did decide on one thing though I would do everything in my power to make sure she made it back to Earth, even if I had to die to do it. Artemis had come to mean to much to me in our brief time in Tartarus and I know realized that I would have done the same thing for her even when we were both with the hunt. I could not deny that I had grown attracted to her, feelings that would normally scare me for my own safety but now was on the on the bottom of my list of worries. 10 feet, 5 feet from the portal and the monsters were throwing everything they had me but I would not be stopped, not while Artemis' life was in danger. I finally reached the portal and jumped through it to find myself in a forest somewhere. Where I was though was the least of my concerns though as what was left of the monster horde began to follow me through the portal. Soon around 50 monsters were arrayed I front of me and a now unconscious Artemis. I placed her in the ground and place myself in between the monsters and her.

"You want her you have to go through me first." I growled at the horde in front of me. Soon they all charged at once and I ran forward meet them. Before we collided though I jumped onto the chest of the last cyclops remaining and stabbed him through the chest. I fell to the ground and lashed out at the hellhound on my left and it turned it to dust. The rest of the battle was a blur for me as I was untouchable because the monsters were no longer on their home turf and I was fighting for the sole purpose of protecting Artemis. I soon found myself back in front of the portal and immediately closed it and ran back to Artemis. When I reached her I checked for a pulse and could barely feel it, this would be a close run thing. But first I needed a way to contact the gods. Checking both my pockets and Artemis' I found no golden drachmas that could be used to iris message them so my options were basically out. I could only think of one way but even then it was a long shot as I had never used this power before and I still didn't know if anyone would notice if I was able to pull this off. I stood up and focused all of my energy on the one thing that could possibly save Artemis, and soon I was rewarded as the ground began to slowly shake and with ever increasing force as I summoned an earthquake that was surely felt around the world. I would never know if it was heard as I saw black and pitched forward onto the ground near where Artemis lay.

A/N so by far the longest chapter I have ever written and by about 1000 words. All in all this took about 5 hours to write. If this story does not reach say 50 reviews then the next chapter will not come out for a long time. I don't mean to threaten you guys but after writing this for five hours and and seeing that for the other chapters with 10k views and I only have 37 reviews it kinda gets on my nerves a little bit.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N How's it going everybody? I know it's been a while since I last updated but I had a lot of schoolwork and I will continue to have a lot as exams are approaching. In this chapter there is two major history lies, when I say there was an earthquake when this chapter is based, and that George Washington's dad is Zeus. I looked it up and there wasn't even a single major earthquake during the time period. And for George I can do it cause I feel like it. The rest is true though so as always enjoy…

Yorktown, Virginia, October 19, 1781

(George Washington POV)

Finally! I have the British pinned in and with the help of my French allies who are children of Hades we will finally make these pesky British and the children of Poseidon who constitute their leadership surrender. As the white flag began to fly over Cornwallis' final stronghold I could only imagine the pride my father Zeus would have in me for defeating his rivals' children and winning independence for the country that will one day be the ultimate world power.

(Olympus, same exact time)

"Yes that's my boy!" Zeus exclaimed as he jumped out of his chair in joy. Now he would control both the immortal world and through his children the mortal world. The rest of the olympians who had gathered under Zeus' orders to watch the events that were unfolding groaned in displeasure. Now they would have to put up with Zeus having an even larger ego than ever before. "Take that brother, I now am truly the greatest god now." Zeus boasted in Poseidon's direction. However Poseidon paid him no attention and appeared highly troubled.

"Poseidon what is wrong?" Hestia asked from her corner by the hearth.

(Apollo POV)

Crap. Now the gods might have found out about our rescue plan and by extension the fact that we sent Percy, who is currently our best hope, on a near impossible mission that would likely end in his death. It was nearing the time that I expected him to return due to the differences in time passage between the mortal world and Tartarus and I felt these disturbance meant one thing and one thing only.

"I feel a major disturbance coming from the area around Paris." He said quite troubled.

"Please, Hades probably told his children in the French government about their victory and they already began to celebrate."

"No brother I have had no communication with my children in months. And I too feel an abnormal influx of people entering my realm centering in the Paris area." Hades said. Hades was currently sitting in his honorary guest chair because of the watch party Zeus forced everyone to go to.

Well this wasn't good, whatever was happening with Percy's quest, and I knew it was him because only he and Artemis could cause so much trouble, was obviously not turning out well.

"Fine then I want you to go investigate this Apollo." Zeus ordered. I was quite happy in fact, now I might be able to cover this up and have no one in the council be the wiser. I immediately flashed to Paris to see a scene of utter destruction. The entire city was in ruins with almost every building being either collapsed or filled with structural damage. I could hear the cries of all the distraught people as their homes and lives were destroyed and many of their loved ones taken from them within seconds. I slowly floated higher only to see the same destruction to the entirety of the city. Strangely I saw that all this seemed to be radiating from an area in the center of the city where buildings had the most complete destruction and many cracks could be seen in the ground. I used my godly powers to zoom my vision in on this area to see Percy and Artemis both passed out on the ground and both bleeding heavily. I flashed there as fast as I could and ran up to them. I checked for vitals on both of them and was relieved when I felt the both had heartbeats. While they were faint they were still there and both of them were alive.

"Apollo?" I heard a faint voice coming from Percy, "Where is everyone else? What is happening? Why are there a bunch of screams?" He asked.

"Yes Percy it's me and the other Olympians aren't here because I haven't told them about your quest as they would probably kill me for letting you go to Tartarus on your own." I explained.

"But why is there a bunch of screaming though?"

(Percy POV)

"Percy," Apollo hesitated, "the rift you jumped through landed you in the middle of Paris and you released a magnitude 10.0 earthquake to notify us of your return but it may have also destroyed the entire city." I was distraught, all of this was because of me? I was the reason hundreds of thousands of people are now dead? I felt like total crap right now, but I still had one more duty to finish, getting Apollo to help Artemis. That was all I cared about right now.

"Apollo, you need to get Artemis back to Olympus now or else she may not make it." I said.

He seemed to perk up at this, for someone who thought of himself as the protective older brother he certainly forgot about her quickly. "Oh dang I forgot about her." I soon saw a golden aura radiating outwards from Apollo and closed my eyes only to open them a few seconds later to see a sweaty and wheezing Apollo and the same city that I had laid waste to. "Percy I don't have enough strength, all this death is really damaging my powers. I will only be able to get one of you but I will tell the Olympians and get one of them to help Artemis."

It made sense that a healing god would not be his best under these conditions. "No Apollo, you need to get Artemis, her life means more right now than mine anyway." Apollo looked like he wanted to argue but I was getting dizzy from blood loss and also impatient. "Just hurry up and take her Apollo!" He quickly grabbed Artemis' hand and teleported to Olympus leaving me alone. I slowly sat up and got my first full view of the now destroyed Paris. I knew that Apollo would not get help in time. I knew that because of this destruction I had caused I would likely be sentenced to the Fields of Punishment when I died, but I strangely felt at peace because I was able to save Artemis' life. I soon felt my hold on life slip away and as my eyes closed I saw the ground rush up to meet me.

The first feeling I had was that of something soft under me, it felt strangely like a bad. I thought they didn't have beds in the underworld though. Soon my other sense came back to me and I could hear muted conversations down the hall. I slowly began to open my eyes only to be immediately blinded by the pure gold walls of the room I was in. I heard my door open and one set of footsteps walk in and soon someone was sitting on the edge of my bed. I slowly began to open my eyes again to see a much better sight, the face of Artemis. I soon saw her face erupt into a smile at seeing me alive. It was in this very moment, that even when covered in bandages from being half beaten to death and nearly dying her smile made her look more beautiful than even Aphrodite. In this span of a few seconds all our adventures rushed through my head and I realized one thing that would forever define me. While I would never admit it for fear of my life I realized that I had truly fallen for the moon goddess.

A/N Dun dun duuunnn. A little shorter than the last two were but it is 1 am right now so I don't really care, I'm tired. So how did this chapter turn out? Good, bad, indifferent? I feel it was pretty good but it's all of your opinions that truly matters to me. So review and tell me what you thought. Also as a side note I have decided to write three total books for this little collection, this one will finish with the end of the American Revolution(ish) and the second one I think will be Percy's long lost brother who he was separated from at birth and who had a run in with Chaos. The last one will be their reunion which btw I already have planned out and the second giant war plus a little extra. MOG out.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N I was going to post this before Christmas as a gift to all you awesome guys but my computer sucks and crashed while I was writing and I didn't want to write for this on Christmas Day so here it is. This and maybe one other chapter will be posted before Jan. 4 as that is when school starts back for me. When school begins I will not write for this story anymore as I need to focus on pulling up some bad grades and I want to continue writing for the Outcasts. As much as I would love to write for both of my stories I just simply won't have enough time. As always enjoy…**

Chapter 11

Percy POV

As I lie there next to Artemis I only had one thought in my mind right now, _How the hell did I manage to do this?_ I mean seriously of all the people to fall for I had to fall for one of the most dedicated virgin goddesses and one who is an all-out man-hater. I knew that if Artemis or any member of the hunt found out about this I would be killed, well most likely I would be turned into a jackalope and then be killed.

Artemis then pulled me out of my thoughts, "Percy, thank you for doing what you did and getting me out of Tartarus, you have no idea how much this means to me." She said with a smile and as I looked straight into her beautiful silver eyes I knew that despite the pain I might suffer as a result of my love for her, if it worked out I knew that it would be worth the pain and difficulty. What I didn't know was that Artemis was similarly just as lost in my eyes as I was in hers.

Artemis POV

As I felt myself get lost in his sea green eyes I felt more secure and safe than I had in a very long time. His eyes seeme to have a depth to them that never ended and it flt as though one could look into his eyes for a millennium and never unravel all their secrets. I then heard someone cough behind me and I was brought out of my thoughts to see Apollo standing behind me.

"If you're done staring at each other I need to check up on Perseus real quick." He said as I felt heat rising in my cheeks and looked away to hide my blush.

"Very well then, Perseus I expect you at our camp when Apollo lets you go." I said and with a second glance I flashed to the camp. When I arrived I noticed how small the camp was and grew worried, surely Perseus hadn't allowed the hunt to be decimated this badly. I was then blindsided and tackled by a group of squealing girls.

"Artemis you're back!" Phoebe said with immense joy in her voice. I saw her smile fade however when she noticed something, "Milady where is Perseus?"

"Don't worry Apollo is giving Perseus one last check up before he lets him go." I noticed that the copious amounts of ambrosia Apollo gave me had almost finished healing me. "But what happened to the Hunt? Perseus didn't screw it up this badly did he?" I asked.

"No milady, Percy sent half the hunt under Zoe to patrol the southern colonies." She explained. I had to admit Perseus' plan was brilliant, we could now more easily patrol all the colonies. Thinking about Perseus made me remember what happened back in Apollo's palace on Olympus and how I had fallen into the depths of his green eyes. I needed to not let myself get attached to him because I am proud to be a maiden goddess and not even Perseus can change that. Speaking of Perseus a golden flash off to my left appeared and then dissipated reveal Apollo and a still heavily bandaged Perseus they seemed to be talking and then Apollo pulled him into a hug and flashed out. Perseus noticed us and limped over, not even thinking I walked over and put his weight on me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I felt a blush rise up on my face as I felt how close we were right now. I dumped off at the first log I could find and noticed he was looking anywhere but at me.

"Perseus the Olympians will want to talk to us." He nodded and I grabbed his hand and blushed again. Before anyone could see I flashed us to Olympus and I helped him walk to the throne room. The second Zeus saw us walk through the doors he threw a lightning bolt into the sky summoning the gods and walked up to me and pulled me into a hug completely ignoring Perseus who was knocked to the ground without anyone to support him.

"What is the meaning of this meeting Lord Zeus?" Athena asked from her throne.

Poseidon noticing me on the ground flashed over to pick me up and also shot Zeus a dirty glare which was returned with the same intensity. Hestia came over and blasted me with an orange glow that helped speed up with the healing with my wounds, enough so that I could stand under my own power.

Zeus, who had returned to his throne, made an announcement to the assembled gods, "With the help of young Perseus, my daughter Artemis has safely returned to us!" He said with a proud smile on his face.

Everyone in the throne room began to celebrate but their celebrations were ended prematurely when Hecate stormed into the throne room.

"What is the meaning of your intrusion Hecate?" Zeus asked, not happy that the attention of the gods was taken off his daughter.

Hecate looked warily at all the gods and gave a brief smile to me and Hestia, "I come with terrible news Lord Zeus, Kampê and escaped from Tartarus and leads a large army of monsters towards Philadelphia." Gasps could be heard throughout the throne room, Kampê was a very dangerous foe and defeating her would not be easy.

"When will she arrive?" Athena asked already trying to figure out potential strategic plans.

"She and her army will arrive in one week." The throne room became so quiet you could hear a pin drop and then all of a sudden every god shouted out trying to be heard when Zeus who had grown angry at all the gods bickering through a lightning bolt into the air that caused the entirety of Olympus to shake and for all the gods to become silent again.

"Chiron and Luna informed me that the camps will not be ready to move to America for at least a few months so what forces can we muster to halt Kampê?" Zeus asked.

It was Athena that immediately began to speak, "All we have on the hemisphere is the hunters and maybe a few nature spirits but I doubt they will be willing to help us as I do not know if they are wild or not."

"Very well then, Artemis you and Perseus must take the hunt to Philadelphia and hold the city at all costs or Western Civilization will fail." Zeus then immediately flashed out hoping to find some wind spirits that might help in the fight. All the gods except me, Poseidon, and Hestia flashed out leaving us alone with Percy.

"Goodbye my champion I wish I could help you but I'm afraid I can not." A weeping Hestia said as she was about to send her only champion in history of to fight an almost unwinnable battle.

"It's okay mom I have the hunt with me and with them we will win." Percy said reassuringly and I was surprised that Percy and Hestia had grown so close that Percy would refer to her as mom.

Poseidon just looked at his son sadly, "There is not much I can say that Hestia hasn't covered but please just for me, stay safe." Poseidon then looked at me, "You know by know how impulsive he can be but please keep him safe." And Poseidon also flashed out leaving me alone with Percy.

Percy turned to look at me and when his eyes met mine I completely forgot what I was about to say. I then realized that it was not just his eyes that were beautiful but he was muscular and handsome in general.

 _Stop thinking like this you are maiden goddess who prides herself in being a maiden_ One half of me argued. _Yes but admit it, he is one of the best men out there and you know you grew attracted to him while you were in Tartarus_ the other half of me said. I was pulled out of my thoughts when Perseus waved his hand in front of my face.

Percy POV

I knew it was probably dangerous to do that but I also knew that if I didn't stop then I would simply stand there staring into Artemis' eyes for the rest of eternity.

Artemis looked like a deer caught in a clearing and then she grew mad, "Don't you dare do that again." As she said this I noticed how her eyes glowed an even brighter form of silver and I was lost in them again almost immediately. I began to think about how hopeless this was not knowing that Artemis also was having an internal struggle about me.

"Just grab my hand." Artemis said, when I grabbed it she flashed us to just outside camp and we walked in. Phoebe came out to greet us and her eyes lowered only for a knowing smirk to appear on her face.

"What is it Phoebe?" Artemis asked annoyed at the expression on Phoebe's face.

"Oh it's nothing milady I just didn't know you and Percy bonded so much while in Tartarus." She said and we both were confused until I noticed that we were still holding hands and had been for a while. I immediately pulled my hand out despite how good it felt to have her smaller hand in mine. Artemis both had blushes on our faces that Phoebe found hilarious as she clutched her stomach she was laughing so hard.

Artemis POV

I felt so embarrassed that Phoebe had seen that and I began looking into the woods, or anywhere but at those two. I would never admit it but I felt disappointed when Perseus' hand left mine and I felt incomplete without the physical contact, _oh quit acting like Aphrodite and put some distance between you and him._ The maiden half of me said. _he is the one man that can bring happiness to us though_. The half of me that wanted to be happy said.

"Phoebe you need to call Zoe and tell her to bring the rest of the hunt to Philadelphia." Percy said and I felt relieved that the topic had changed away from the two of us but I grew solemn that we had to talk about the upcoming battle where I would likely lose many hunters.

Phoebe ran off without a second question despite not knowing what was happening. I felt a hand grasp mine and looked up to Percy looking at me with a look of affection hidden deep in his green eyes, "Never worry milady for I will protect you and the hunt with my life." He whispered in my ear and I shivered at the closeness we shared. We then walked into camp, hand in hand, with me feeling better about the upcoming fight than I had in a long time.

 **A/N Finally I put a little Pertemis fluff in the story, I had a little difficulty writing those scenes so if I completely butchered it please tell me. Just giving all you guys a heads up if I get enough reviews then I might be able to post some additional chapters before my winter break ends and maybe even a chapter when I go on spring break. So anyway good, bad, indifferent tell me with a review as more reviews means I get happier and when I get happier I tend to write more and the work it better. MOG out.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N This is the last chapter for a while so I will try and make it nice and long for all you guys. This chapter shouldn't have the major battle in it so it is safe to say that this is a filler chapter so sorry if I disappoint you :( . And also if I get the street names wrong please don't get mad at me, I know that I am using the modern street names but I couldn't find the old street plan of Philadelphia that gives me what I want. So as always enjoy…**

Chapter 12

Artemis POV

Philadelphia, November 2, 1781, 3 days till Kampê's arrival.

"Milady we need more barricades built on Walnut street." A frantic Zoe told me, ever since we had joined up with her group of hunters I could tell that the stress of the coming battle was getting to her.

"Very well then." As she turned away I called out to her, "Zoe please come back here I need to ask you a question." She looked at me expectantly but I could still see how unrelaxed she was by the stiffness in her shoulders. "I know that there is a major upcoming battle but these have never disturbed you in the past so why are you so nervous and tense before this one?" I asked

She looked away and I grew troubled, Zoe was always able to look me in the eye and tell me anything. "Milady don't take this the wrong way but, I feel like you have grown too close to Perseus and I fear that he is taking you away from us and our values."

I frowned, so that's what this is about. Zoe is worried about a relationship between me and Perseus. To be perfectly honest I too had noticed that I sought his company with ever increasing frequency. I don't know why I do it but just being with him makes me feel safer and more secure.

"Very well Zoe I will keep your thoughts and worries about Perseus in mind but you don't have to worry about anything between me and Perseus." I lied, Perseus was one of the best men in existence and he proved it when he willingly went to Tartarus to get me when he knew that he couldn't lead the hunters to victory. Another might have let his pride get in the way and would have believed that he could win the war on his own.

I picked up the barricades that would be needed and began to walk to Walnut Street when Perseus walked in front of me. Seeing him caused my stomach to do backflips and my heart to start fluttering, whenever I saw him he would always have this effect on me but I knew I could never tell anyone, especially Perseus or Zoe.

"Do you need any help with that milady?" He asked me.

I looked at him and made eye contact and immediately forgot what I was going to say. "I… I uhhhh" Perseus just gave me a questioning glance and I was finally able to get the words out. "Umm sure if you want to."

"It would be my pleasure." He said smiling and as he did so I felt my heart flutter again.

When he relieved me of my load I immediately walked away, mainly so he wouldn't see my blush and also because I knew that I would have to start distancing myself or else I might truly fall for him.

Percy POV

As Artemis walked away my only thought was of how much I loved her yet if she ever found out I knew castration would only be the first thing they did to me. I continued walking and began to notice that some of the hunters were giving me dirty glares for some reason, _now why would they do that?_

Artemis POV

2 days before Kampê's arrival

I had left the moon chariot on autopilot for the night as I knew the hunt would need me there to help keep moral up. By this point all the hunters except Zoe were asleep and she was sitting next to the fire that we had built in the middle of the street. I sat down across from her with a tired sigh.

"What is wrong milady?"

"Nothing is wrong Zoe."

"Milady I have served you for thousands of years now and I know when something is troubling you and I can tell that something is bothering you now." I looked and saw the determination to uncover the truth written plainly across her face and knew this would come sooner or later.

I decided that as my faithful lieutenant she at least had the right to know about my conflicting emotions. "I guess you could say that I am scared." She just gave me a questioning look and I knew that I needed to elaborate. "What I am scared about is that I think you are right about Perseus and that I have grown more attached to him."

Zoe just nodded in understanding, "You are also afraid about the hunt's reaction to this news."

I nodded in confirmation, "I am also afraid of what will happen if he rejects my advances." I said in a voice barely above a whisper but Zoe still heard it.

When she didn't respond I looked up at her to see her standing above me. The next thing I knew I felt a stinging sensation across my face and the realization that she just slapped me dawned on me. I looked to her for an explanation which she was more than happy to give to me. "Are your eyes even open half the time? Cause if they were you would've noticed by now that Perseus is literally head over heels for you right now."

I looked at her shocked and she just nodded in confirmation. "All the hunters have noticed it and some are taking it better than others." She said

"How do you know this for sure though?" I asked

She just rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You can be so clueless sometimes. Like I said if you would pay attention you would notice how you are always the first one he helps and he always makes sure that you don't have to do anything difficult. Whenever he looks at you he blushes like an idiot. And in case you never noticed he jumped into Tartarus for you." I took all she said in consideration. "Look if you still don't believe me than just watch him tomorrow and you'll see what I'm talking about." Before I could say anything else she walked away leaving me alone.

I was still digesting what Zoe had revealed to me and the question that still floated in my head was whether or not Zoe was telling the truth and how the hunters would take this. All I knew though was that only time would tell how this would turn out and with that thought in mind I turned in for the night.

Day of Kampe's attack

The day had come and I ordered my hunters into position at dawn. I saw that Perseus was leading them and I felt blood rush to my face upon seeing him. The day before I had taken Zoe's advice and everything she said was true and all the signs were there, I was just too blind to see them. The hunters were currently split into four groups one being led by me, another by Perseus, another by Zoe, and the last one being led by Elizabeth whom had served me for centuries and I knew could be trusted. Before the battle Perseus walked up to me, "Good hunting today milady." He said with a smile and I felt my brain melt into a puddle inside my skull.

"Uhh… I mean good hunting to you as well Perseus." and with that he left to guard one of the approaches to Independence Hall where we felt Kampe would strike first seeing as how this is where the Declaration of Independence was signed. I looked over and saw Zoe snickering at me and gave her a glare that would frighten most gods but she just began to laugh harder much to my chagrin. We separated and went to our various defensive positions and I took my spot atop the wall that blocked off the street yet it still gave us a good place to shoot. We had built a similar wall at all four of our defensive positions and had also placed sharpened stakes with celestial bronze tips to hopefully break any charges against the walls. All of a sudden the quiet morning air was split by the deafening sound of a hunting horn and looking down the street I saw a sight that made my mouth go dry and my hands start shaking with fear.

 **A/N So this wasn't as long as I had anticipated it being but hopefully the next chapter I write (Whenever that may be it just depends(Likely not for a good long while)) will be much longer and more exciting than this one. When I next update depends on you guys and girls, if I get a bunch of reviews and what nots then I will try and find time whenever I can to write but if I don't then the next chapter likely won't be till spring break which for me is late March so the ball is in your court. So good, bad, indifferent I want to know, hopefully this is up to par with the other chapters. MOG out.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N So for the first time in like 3 years I actually am out of school due to snow and wintery conditions. With my day off I decided to go ahead and write a new chapter for this seeing as I finally have the time. To include some things that you guys asked for I am going to try and go relatively in depth with their defenses. One of the main ideas comes from a movie starring Orlando Bloom and another comes from a book series written by John Flanagan, if you can determine where either comes from then kudos to you(I'm more impressed if you can find the book reference). And just a heads up, Kampê is VERY OP in this in the regards of that I gave her one or two godly powers, you'll see what I mean but I wanted to give you a warning. As always enjoy… IMPORTANT A/N AT THE END PLEASE READ!**

Chapter 12

Philadelphia, October 1781

 _All of a sudden the quiet morning air was split by the deafening sound of a hunting horn and looking down the street I saw a sight that made my mouth go dry and my hands start shaking with fear._

Artemis POV

Before us marched rank after rank of armored cyclops and laistrygonian giants. Each one stood at least 9 feet tall and all had on gleaming armor that nearly covered them from head to toe.

Turning to my hunters I gave them one last piece of advice "The armor that wear is weak in the neck and in their armpits, hit them there if you hope to kill them." I saw that all of my hunters looked apprehensive against such a threat but they all gave nods of acknowledgment to me. The only thing that seemed out of place here was where was their leader…

Percy POV

Before me and my group of eleven of the younger hunters stood the largest monster army I had ever seen, dracaenae, hellhounds, telkhines, and many other assorted monsters stood before us. But what stood out was Kampê who stood at the front in golden armor with a large hole in the torso so her bear head could stick out. I could hear her laughing at what she thought was our meager defenses, _boy was she in for a shock._

"Do not be fazed by their numbers, all of the monsters before you are weak and easily killed. I will handle Kampê myself when the time comes." I looked at all my hunters and noticed that not even some of the slightly older ones who had hated me from the beginning spared me an evil glare, they were all too busy looking out at the army they would have to somehow defeat.

I soon felt and heard rain begin to fall all around us and thunder loudly boomed off in the distance, I cursed our bad luck knowing the rain would only hamper our bows' accuracy. I looked out across the street and saw that they were nearing the first pile of rocks we had placed. Before the battle we had measured out the distance from our defenses and every 50 meters we would place a pile of rocks and cover it in white paint. We did it all the way out to 200 hundred meters so that whenever the enemy armies were even with the rocks the hunters would know the exact elevation needed to deliver the most death unto the approaching army.

Once the first rank of enemy soldiers was past the I called out the distance. "200!" Instantly eleven bows whipped up into position all at the exact elevation needed to deliver the arrows perfectly. Eleven bow strings were pulled back and I gave the order to fire. The morning air was filled with the sounds of airs whizzing through the air. Not even looking to see the results of the first volley the hunters reloaded and began to fire as a group on one of the hunters on the end's cadence. It was agreed to that each group would have a spotter that would warn the hunters of the waning distance between the enemy armies and our defenses, meanwhile the hunters would only focus on sending out as many volleys as they could. Since I knew my archery could not match the other hunters' and I would only slow them down, I agreed to do this for my section of the defenses. Before the first volley hit another two were already on their way, I looked out and saw how the arrows tore apart the weak and unarmored monsters before us. The hunters were raining death and destruction on the enemy army as it charged up to our wall.

"150!" I yelled out as soon as the monsters were even with the second pile of stones that signaled 150 meters. Before the next volley was delivered the hunters all lowered the trajectory off the arrows so they would all shoot exactly at 150 meters. This continued until the enemy army arrived at the 50 meter mark where at this point I had all the hunters begin to fire at will sacrificing the deadly group effect for increased speed. It was also at 50 meters were I summoned my bow to enact one of our deadly surprises. We had constructed wooden platforms that hung out over the street on the roofs and each was held from falling onto the street by a thick piece of piece of tarred rope. I dipped an arrow wrapped in oiled cloth into one of the Greek fire braziers we had and drew back the arrow, aiming for the rope holding one of the two platforms. The second I released the arrow I knew the shot was true and the arrow soon was lodged into the rope and the Greek fire on its tip soon began to eat away at the rope. I repeated the process on the other platform and watched as both pieces of rope were soon burned away dropping the platforms and what we had placed on them into the monster ranks. Soon strangled cries could be heard as Greek fire fell into the monster horde. The entire street was engulfed in flames, cutting off the reserve forces of Kampê's army.

The sound of more strangled cries and the sound of wood breaking reached my ears and I looked at the base of our wall and saw that the front lines had reached the sharpened stakes we had placed in the ground, each stake was tipped with celestial bronze to allow it to be effective. The other thing I noticed though was that Kampê had flown off elsewhere for she was not within sight. _Where did that stupid snake woman go?_

Artemis POV

I knew that things would go bad for me after my first shot, I had sent a silver arrow towards their front line hoping that one of my explosive arrows would cause havoc and mass death in their tightly packed formation. I watched as my silver glowing arrow neared their lines when all of a sudden the arrow seemed to hit an invisible barrier and the glow of my arrow disappeared. The arrow then found its mark, hitting a cyclops in the front straight through the throat and killing it instantly. Yet there was not an explosion decimating their formation like their should have been. Only a god, titan, or exceptionally powerful monster could do such a thing and Kampê was none of these. When I came to the realization that made the most sense to me I felt myself begin to shake in my boots with fear, _Kampê must have somehow gained the essence of a titan!_

Now currently my hunters and I were under heavy cannonball fire and we also had cyclops tearing away at our wall, stripping the wood away as easily as I would pluck an apple from a tree. Despite all the traps we had devised and my hunters best efforts our position could be held no longer. I ordered the hunters to dump all our remaining Greek fire unto the monsters and dozens of vials hit the cyclops on the ground. Originally the vials were supposed to last for 3 days of battle and be thrown by the hunter only in desperate need but I knew that we could not let the enemy get their hands on such a potent weapon. As their howls of pain filled the air I ordered a withdrawal and signaled to the other leaders by contacting their minds. Once I had contacted Perseus, Zoe, and Elizabeth I quickly fled to Independence Hall where we would make a final stand, shooting the occasional arrow and taking down more monsters as I went, trying to buy time. When I arrived I found my hunt but with six less girls present then there was before the battle, I felt anger flow through my veins as I thought of their deaths. Kampê and her monsters will suffer for this.

Speaking of Kampê I still could not see her on the ground with her army, I expected her to be in the front lines taunting us and trying to convince us to give up hope.

"Who knows where Kampê is?" I asked the other three commanders in our brief meeting before we fell under attack again.

It was Perseus who answered. "She was leading the army that attacked my group but at the very end right before you called for us to withdraw she disappeared. I don't know how we missed it but we somehow did." He explained, I nodded accepting his answer yet it still didn't solve the problem of locating her.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Perseus grabbed my shoulder. "Artemis we must return to the front for the enemy army has arrived." Indeed they had for several hundred monsters were surrounding us and walking towards us at casual paces and all with grins on their ugly faces for they knew we were completely surrounded and would probably be dead in a few hours.

I had barely noticed that the sun had sunk and the moon had risen which should have filled me with joy for the moon would give me the extra strength needed to tip the favor of the battle in our favor. But at the current moment I could only think of how I had failed the gods and I had also failed the hunters whom I saw each of as a daughter of mine. Yet for some reason I felt most ashamed that I had failed Perseus because having to help us had led to his death.

I then finally noticed that the moonlight streaming down on all us and the feeling of the moon giving me power got the blood flowing quickly through my veins and a feeling of determination grow throughout me. With the added strength I resolved that I wouldn't fail any of them, especially Perseus.

I however was pulled out of my thoughts when Kampê's harsh laughter filled the night sky. "So here you all are, the final hope of Olympus stands before me ready to be slain like animals by my forces." She said with a sadistic grin. I looked up and saw that she was perched on a rooftop across the street. "You know I enjoy smelling the fear within all of you, oh the smell is so strong I can smell it from here." And with that she made a big show of sniffing the air. "Refreshing."

"Why don't you come down here and see just how scared we truly are." Perseus challenged.

"As much as I would love to I really enjoy seeing the hopelessness in your eyes, the sense of impending doom. I enjoy it so much so that I will recall all my forces and grant you this one last night to live. Make the best of it for by tomorrow night you shall all be dead." And with that she flapped her wings and flew off into the night.

With her departure from the battlefield all of her forces turned and began to leave leaving us at peace for now.

I soon found myself discussing with Zoe, Perseus, and Elizabeth as to what tricks we could possible use against Kampê in the morning when she returned.

"What I still don't understand though is why did she leave us alone, I mean I don't feel like her reasons were the actual reasons why she did so." It was Zoe who brought this to our attention and I had to admit that I too had wondered about it but never gave it much of a second thought.

Perseus who had been mostly quiet spoke up and gave us an answer that left us all chilled to the bone with hopelessness. "Kampê knew that at night Artemis would be her most powerful and would be capable of destroying her entire army with relative ease. Also because of the greek fire traps we used she was still cut off from her reserve forces so she wouldn't have had the numbers to wipe us out completely anyway." Nothing but silence greeted his answer for we all came to the same conclusion as Percy had, that tomorrow instead of coming with a few hundred monsters Kampê would be coming with a few thousand monsters.

"Is there anything we can do against such odds." I asked

"What we have to do is get plenty of rest tonight and tomorrow just fight as hard as we can until we are rewarded with either victory." Perseus said and the weight of each of his words fell on us like a hammer. He may not have said that he gave up but we all knew he had from the way he said the words with his depressed tone that he had lost all hope.

"Well we might as well go along with that idea and get some rest and then hope for the best tomorrow." I said as our little group dispersed with each one muttering their agreement.

"Perseus stay in here." I requested as he walked towards me with a questioning look on his face. "Perseus I-"

"Please on the last day of my life please just call me Percy, you have no idea how much that has irritated me these past few years." He said cutting me off before I could continue.

"Very well then Percy." He nodded in approval, "What I was going to say is, is that you don't need to lose hope so easily."

He just snorted at my words. "Artemis we, some thirty-odd hunters, a goddess, and a demigod stand against thousands of monsters and Kampê. I am sorry but we have no hope in this."

As soon as the words left his mouth I slapped him across the face and felt my anger at his attitude begin to mount. "If you give up hope now then there most certainly will be no chance of surviving but if you don't give up hope and you fight like you have never fought before then tomorrow we can win." I said trying to win him over.

I saw him look towards the ground and I knew that I had won. "Fine I will try not to give up hope but I still feel as though we are all going to die tomorrow."

"That is all I can ask for." I said and I saw his eyes raise up to meet mine and yet again I felt lost in them.

And then he did something that I would have never thought he would do and something that normally would get any man killed. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on my lips. When he did so I felt my stomach do somersaults and yet also it felt like the weight of the world had been taken off my shoulders and I felt all the tension and stress that had built up ever since the hunt had come to America dissipate from within me. Almost as soon as it began it was over and the amazing feeling left me yet I still felt my lips tingling.

"I figured that since tomorrow will likely be my last day alive I felt that I should tell you that I have been in love with you ever since Tartarus." He said while shrugged sheepishly. "And should we both survive this I wanted to know if you would like to maybe go on a date sometime?" He asked and when I didn't give an answer I saw his shoulders slump and I could see his heart shattering because of the sadness in his eyes.

He turned around and began to walk away when I realized that this would probably be the last night ever with him. "Percy." I called out and when he turned around I could see the tears forming in his eyes. I walked forward and was standing right in front of him when I did something that shocked even me. This time it was I that leaned forward for the kiss and like the first time all the tension left me and all I felt was pure bliss. When he began to pull away I wrapped an arm around his head and pulled him in tighter and deepening the kiss. Soon I let go and our lips separated leaving both of us panting for air and our foreheads touching as I looked straight into his beautiful green eyes.

"I wanted to tell you for so long but I never truly knew if you would return the feelings but I love you too Percy."

When I said it he smiled and pulled me in for a hug and whispered in my ear, "Do not worry about me losing hope for a world where I am with you is a world that I will fight till the end for." We then stood there embracing each other as we looked up at the rising moon, feeling better than we both had in a long, long time.

 **A/N Holy crap that ended up being really long this is easily one of the longest chapters I have ever posted so I hope this will satisfy you guys for a while. In terms of story writing I have made the ultimate decision to finish this and then work fully on the Outcasts. Assuming I don't write a sequel to this at which the writing time will be split. Speaking of sequels do you guys want me to write one? I have a pretty good idea forming in regards to the hunt participating in the civil war and also I can always go into the actual Rick Riordan series themselves so you guys tell me, what do you want in regards to the future of Percy and Artemis?**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N So here is the second part of the Battle for Philadelphia! I will post this and several post war chapters that will set up future conflicts and instead of a sequel I will include a very big time skip and simply continue the story from there. So as always enjoy…**

Percy POV

I was shaken awake in the predawn hours of the day by Zoe who looked quite alarmed. I noticed she seemed to be intently staring at my chest area and when I too looked down I finally registered the weight on top of me and the auburn hair sprawled all over my chest. It was then that the events of last night came rushing back to me after Artemis and I had admitted our feelings for each other we sat there and watched the moon rise and we had unintentionally fallen asleep in each other's arms. Last night when Artemis had said those words I had felt more joy than I ever had in my short and pain filled life.

"What happened last night?" Zoe said in a concerned whisper.

"I promise you that nothing happened between us." I said trying to reassure her but she still had doubt in her eyes because of the position that Artemis and I were in.

I heard a groan from Artemis as she slowly began to wake up. When she became fully aware of the position she was in she looked like a deer that had been cornered by hunters. She quickly got up and brushed her hair into position as it had taken a crazy appearance due to it being sprawled all over my chest throughout the night.

When we were both standing it was to my immense satisfaction that she still stood by me and when she unconsciously laced her fingers through mine.

"Milady, what happened?"

"A simple misunderstanding, we were out watching the moon and simply fell asleep. Nothing more and nothing less." Artemis explained and Zoe appeared to trust in Artemis' word more than mine but she still wasn't convinced.

"You are still a maiden though?" She asked much to the annoyance of both Artemis and me.

"I swear on the River Styx that I am still a maiden." Artemis said and Zoe was finally convinced that we were telling the truth.

A mischievous grin spread across her face when she noticed Artemis lacing her fingers through mine. "So when did this happen though?" She asked pointing at our hands.

Artemis just blushed and it was I that answered, "I don't know about Artemis but for me it was when we were travelling through Tartarus."

"And it was the same for me too, the fact that he would delve into the depths of Tartarus just to save me is a true act of selflessness and I was in love from that point forward." Artemis said.

Hearing our answers Zoe's grin grew into a wide smile. "Well I'm happy for the two of you."

"I'm surprised that you aren't mad about this though, I would've thought you would be vehemently opposed to this." Artemis said.

"Admittedly if this happened before I truly got to know Percy and before I had seen just how great a man he truly was I would've been mad. Having known him for as long as I have though I have come to learn that there truly isn't a man that compares to him so no I am not mad." I could see a smile on Artemis' face and while Zoe's smile may be pretty, it would never compare to the beauty of Artemis'. "However I would not tell the other hunters about this." Zoe said, clearly a warning.

"Why not though?" I asked

"Some of the other hunters will definitely not be accepting of you and Artemis' love. Hades, some of them don't even like the fact that you are here in the first place." She explained.

I saw Artemis frown at this but before she could say anything Elizabeth ran to where we were. "Milady the monster army is approaching." She said breathlessly before running off to rouse more hunters.

"We need to go." Artemis said before running off without a second glance at either of us.

When Zoe and I arrived we saw Kampe leading her entire army in a single column straight at us. She wasn't going to try and surround us, she was going to try and march directly into us and destroy us. She didn't care if we fled or not because her true goal was Independence Hall and the room the Declaration was signed in as that room is the heart of western civilization and without it the western civilization would fall and Kampe would rule the world. Before her army stood some 20 hunters with a dozen of the younger ones shooting from the windows. The monster army spanned the entire clearing in front of Independence Hall and half a mile to east was the Delaware River, too far for Percy's water powers to be of effect.

Kampe walked forward flanked by only her flag bearer, who flew a flag with a burning oak tree device on it. Artemis, Zoe, and I walked forward to meet her. When we meet in the middle Kampe wasted no time explaining her terms. "Flee this place now or no hunter shall live to see the next morning." She hissed at us in a voice laced with pure anger towards our continued, and by all accounts futile, resistance. "I have waited a thousand years in Tartarus for this moment and you shall not stop me." She began to beat her wings, about to take off. "You have half an hour to make your decision, make sure it's the right one." She said as an afterthought before she took off back to her forces.

Half and hour passed with nothing but silence save for the occasional nervous chatter amongst the younger ones. When our allotted half hour was up and we were still camped in front of the building Kampe sent her forces forward. Her front rank was 200 meters in front of us when a large chunk of her forces exploded in golden dust. From our left the sound of cannon fire steadily grew and with increasing frequency a knot of monsters would be destroyed. Looking to the east we saw what could only be considered a gift from the gods. Sitting on the Delaware River, pouring cannon fire into Kampe's ranks, was battleship with a hull of gleaming celestial bronze and flying the banner of Camp Half Blood. Kampe's army was in utter chaos as monsters were destroyed left and right, some of the braver ones charged at us only to be met by silver arrows into the chinks in their armor. Once the cannon fire ceased we looked out to see that Kampe's formidable army of thousands had been reduced into a meager force of no more than a few hundred.

On my right I saw Artemis give the signal for the hunters to charge and we all ran forward to meet Kampe's army head on with newfound hope and energy propelling us forward like a hurricane of death. Soon from an adjacent street several hundred demigods came pouring out, all dressed in their armor and with swords drawn. They crashed into Kampe's right flank and we began to push her horde back one step at a time. Kampe gave a screech of rage and drawing her swords charged at the two people who had ultimately destroyed her plans of destroying Olympus, Artemis and me. Artemis didn't notice her approach as she continued to loose arrow after arrow, killing a monster with every shot. Seeing this I sprinted forward to draw Kampe's attention away from her. I skidded to a stop beside Artemis just as Kampe was upon us swinging her poison covered swords with reckless abandon but also with god-like speed.

Kampe Soon drove me back under the hail of swords until Artemis arrived and together the two of us were able to hold our ground against Kampe and soon we were in a stalemate. Kampe using her twin blades versus Artemis with her twin hunting knifes and me with riptide. Our stalemate continued with our battle raging all across the clearing with no one able to gain the upper hand or land a single blow. Artemis and I fought together as if we had been doing it for our entire lives. But our luck would not hold, I attempted to plant my foot on the ground only for it to land on a dead demigod and tripped and fell to the ground. Artemis then turned towards me making sure I wasn't hit by Kampe and completely forgetting about the true danger that stood before her. Kampe, seeing this, struck out at Artemis and hit her with the flat of her blade and with enough force to her her into a brick wall of one of the nearby buildings.

The impact caused the wall to crack and for Artemis to fall to the ground in a broken and unconscious heap. Seeing this my vision acquired a red tinge to it as I felt uncontrollable anger begin to course through my veins and I soon forgot about my exhaustion from fighting the last two days. I grabbed riptide and another sword from the ground and got to my feet. "You will pay for hurting her." I said in a voice barely above a whisper yet Kampe still heard it and even she faltered at the rage in my voice.

I immediately charged and with the ferocity of my attacks I drove her back. My brief success would not last long however, once Kampe recovered from my initial attack she soon began to strike back at me I began to be the one losing ground. Despite my best effort and despite being fueled by rage Kampe began to gain the upper hand. Soon she had pushed me back away from the clearing and into the city itself. My exhaustion however soon caught up with me and my speed and strength began to waver. Sensing this Kampe renewed her attacks with the glint of victory in her eyes. What I barely registered was that we were but a few hundred yards away from the riverfront.

As we continued to fight Kampe found a hole in my defense and seeing her chance at victory quickly struck at me. I felt a pain like no other, the physical pain was not the worst pain however. The worst pain was the emotional pain in knowing that I had failed Artemis and the other hunters. I could feel the poison quickly spreading through my veins, centered where he sword was currently impaled through my stomach. I looked up to see Kampe with an evil grin on her face as she looked down at my dying form. She turned around and struck me with her tail and I was sent flying through a wooden door and landed in what felt like a blanket of fine powder. Before I could take in my surroundings Kampe was standing before me and she reached out towards me. Not able to resist she grabbed me by the throat and held me aloft with her sword no longer in my stomach. I felt the clamp on my throat tighten as she slowly began to squeeze, I tried to pry her talon like fingers off of me but my attempts were in vain. As my vision began to tunnel due to the rapidly spreading poison and the loss of blood from my open wound I beheld what I had landed in.

Kampe had knocked me into one of the gunpowder storage buildings in the city and lying about us was a large supply of gunpowder and bullets. A desperate and dangerous plan began to form in my mind, I knew that death was the likely outcome but if I didn't do anything I would be dead within seconds regardless whether it be from lack of oxygen, poison, or blood loss. _A hero must pull off a deadly stunt._ That line of the prophecy suddenly rang out clearly in my mind and I knew what I had to do.

I felt the pressure around my throat to the point that I could just barely breathe and Kampe lowered me to eye level. "Any last words Jackson?"

Using this opportunity to gather my thoughts I began to focus on the fire powers given to me by Hestia but the haze of the poison was disrupting my thoughts.

"Maybe the first I shall kill after you will be Artemis." I began to struggle against her grasp. "Yes your reaction tells me everything I need to know, you are in love with her aren't you?" She said with a sadistic grin. "Her head will be the perfect war prize." And with that the intense pressure returned and my access to oxygen was again cut off abruptly. I knew that I could never let Artemis fall to Kampe and the thought that my actions would protect her gave me a clarity of thought that was able to cut through the effects of the poison. I was finally able to draw upon my fire powers and summoned a small ember in the middle of the gunpowder barrels.

"Go to Tartarus bitch." I said just before the gunpowder went off and I closed my eyes waiting for the inevitable death I would receive. As the barrels surrounding us began to explode in a chain reaction I had one last thought, _Till the end of time I shall forever love you Artemis._ The last thing I felt was all the pressure on my neck being released and I opened my eyes to see nothing but open sky and then I saw nothing.

 **A/N And so the battle for Philadelphia is finally over! Is Kampe dead though? Is Percy dead? I guess the only way to find out is to wait for the next chapter which should be up around next Saturday. Good, bad, or terrible send me a review and let me know! MOG out.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N One reviewer asked if I was going to include Calypso in this story and the answer is yes but I will not do so until later in the story. Just as a warning though, as I progress in the Revolutionary War period I will diverge from what actually happened in history and change it to suit the story it may not happen in this chapter but it likely will happen in future chapters. I will try to warn you if there is a historical inaccuracy. Nothing much else to say other than R &R so as always enjoy…**

Chapter 15

Artemis POV

I was awoken by a ear-splitting bang and the feeling of the ground shaking beneath me. The last thing I remembered was being knocked into a wall by Kampe when I got distracted by Percy slipping. When I thought of Percy and Kampe I felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured on my head and my muggy thoughts quickly cleared up. Percy must need me! I thought. I tried to get up but the pain in both my head and my back returned and I ended my attempt almost as soon as I had started it.

Soon my only thought was of how Percy must've been fighting Kampe while I was just sitting here, unable to handle a little bit of pain. I felt new vigor fill my body as I shakily got to my feet, determined to not let Percy stand alone.

Walking through the clearing I saw that the entire monster army had been defeated and a mixture of hunters and campers were recovering the bodies of those who had fallen within the sea of golden monster dust. I saw Zoe nearby and knew that she must know something about Percy's whereabouts "Zoe where did Percy go?" I asked.

Zoe's face suddenly had a look of sadness upon it and I felt my heart sink, whatever news I was about to hear wouldn't be good. "He and Kampe fought all the way to the river where Percy ignited a gunpowder reserve," Zoe's voice was caught in her throat and nothing came out. Her eyes however begin to shimmer due to the thin film of tears in them. "After the blast nobody has seen either of them and as of now we can only assume they are both dead."

I saw for the first time in centuries, a tear roll down Zoe's cheek as I too felt tears begin to form in my eyes. For the first time in my life I had fallen in love with a man only for him to die the day after us confessing our love for each other. The fates must truly hate me for this to happen. I thought only for the thought to be immediately replaced with one that hit my heart like a hammer. He died saving me and if I had only been stronger he might still be alive now. The thought brought another wave of tears to my eyes and I found myself embracing Zoe and crying into her shoulder. At this moment I didn't care who saw, I just needed the support that only someone who knew about my love live like Zoe could give.

"I don't care what takes, even if it takes a war I will get Percy back from Hades." I said resolving that action would be the only thing that would make anything better. When I left the warm comfort of Zoe's arms I saw the doubt in her face about what I had just said but she refrained from saying anything however.

"I must go to Olympus and speak to Hades about this. Have the hunters camp in Independence Hall, let them relax, gods only know they deserve it." I said preparing to flash away but I stopped when I felt Zoe grab my arm.

"Milady what do you want to tell the hunters in regards to Percy?" She asked.

When she said Percy's name I felt a twinge in my heart. "Tell them that he is currently missing and that when I return I will have more information." Zoe frowned at my decision but didn't question it as she turned and began to gather the hunters so they could get their well deserved rest.

When I arrived at the doors of the throne room I entered only to see the entire council arguing. As I began to walk towards my throne all eyes in the room turning towards me and all the arguing ceased.

"I trust since you are here that the battle in Philadelphia went well?" My father asked but judging from his tone of voice he already knew everything that happened and was just asking out of courtesy.

"Things could've gone better." I said and he nodded in response but I could tell that he wasn't really paying any attention. "Is Hades here today?" I asked and when I did Zeus was immediately pulled from his thoughts.

"Why is his presence of concern to you?" Zeus asked while staring right at me with an intensity as if he were trying to mentally rip the information out of me.

"I need to ask a favor of him." I said in response and I could tell my refusal to give him any further information really began to anger him.

"Very well then," He grumbled. "Hermes please bring Hades here." And without another word Hermes left leaving the room in total silence.

Silence only lasted for a brief time until two flashes appeared, one yellow and one pitch black. When the flashes disappeared the two gods Hermes and Hades came into view. "What is the meaning of this?!" Hades demanded.

Instead of answering him Zeus just pointed at me and Hades turned his angry yet curious expression onto me. "I need you to check to see if a soul is currently in domain." I said.

"I'm listening." Was the only response I got from the god of death.

"Has Perseus Jackson entered your domain?" Upon my question the entire throne room became so still that the various gods all appeared to be statues. All except Poseidon who stood from his throne and slowly walked towards us with tears beginning to appear in his eyes.

"My son is dead?" Poseidon asked once he reached where Hades and I were standing. Poseidon appeared worse than I had ever seen him with his eyes red rimmed from crying and tears streaking down his face only to disappear into his beard.

His reaction surprised me, I knew that Poseidon cared for his children more than other gods but even he never was this emotional when one of his children died.

Hades soon adopted a look of understanding in regards to Poseidon's sadness. Percy was killed in one of Zeus' attempts to either gain or keep power like so many of his children had in the past. "I will check with Thanatos to see about his current whereabouts." Hades said before flashing out.

Nothing was said until Hades came back barely a few minutes later with a look of forlorn on his face. "Perseus Jackson never entered the underworld meaning only one thing could've happened to him." Hades said with hesitation as if he personally didn't believe in what he was saying. Both Poseidon and I never paid attention to the hesitation in his words as we were hit with a fresh wave of pain. His death already hurt but knowing that he would no longer be able to achieve paradise in Elysium and the knowledge that my plan to get him back no longer could work felt like a dagger to my heart.

A fresh wave of tears cascaded down Poseidon's face and I felt the sting of tears in my own eyes but I quickly suppressed any emotions I had for many would question why I was crying about the death of a man. The entire throne room sat in stunned silence at the news Hades had given us. It was Athena however who broke the silence and voiced what we all were thinking. "So Perseus is in Tartarus right now?"

 **A/N I thought about ending the chapter here but then I wouldn't have reached the word minimum I set so your welcome for me not being a bitchy writer and dropping a major cliffhanger on you guys. And in this part I am sorry if there are cultural inaccuracies but this is fanfiction and I don't want to spend hour after hour researching 1780's native traditions and way of life so please don't get offended if I get something wrong. Anyway continuing with the story…**

Percy POV

When I felt myself return to consciousness the first thing I noticed was the immense pain I was in. Every inch of my body felt tender and the contact my skin had with the blanket only served to increase the pain I was in. The next thing I noticed was that I was completely naked and lying under a heavy wool blanket that because of the weight and texture agitated the burns on my skin.

"I see you are awake." Said a feminine voice that came from my right. The woman spoke in broken English which meant that she was obviously not well versed in the language.

The pain I was in right now made it hard to form coherent thoughts so I simply sat there in silence, the words not able to form in my mind. Whatever task she was doing off to the side must have been completed because the sound of her footsteps crunching on the dirt floors of the building we were in filled the air. Soon the sight of her kneeling was in my peripheral vision. She was an elderly woman with dark tanned skin that bespoke of her native heritage and of a life that was mainly spent in the sun.

She dipped her hand into a wooden bowl and then reached out towards my head. When I felt her hand touch my forehead the tenderness and pain I was feeling began to ease in that area. The healing salve she used must've been well made for within minutes the burning pain was replaced with the cool, creamy feeling of the salve.

She continued her ministrations across my chest area and down my legs, she at least kept the blanket over my waist area so as to preserve my modesty. With most of the pain gone I found myself able to form complete thoughts again. "Where am I? How did I get here? Who are you?" I asked.

The woman seemed amused by all my questions and the soft sound of her laugh filled the air. "You have more questions than leaves on a tree it would seem." She said.

"And I would appreciate it if they were answered."

She seemed to think on this and her response was not long in coming. "We are the Delaware people and you currently are in one of our villages that lies along what your fellow Europeans call the Delaware River. I am Aiyanna, I am one of the village elders and my son Hopocan is the chief and he will want to meet you as soon as possible. As to how you got here that is something that truly confounds us all. We found you floating down the river covered in burns far worse than what they are now and with bullets and wooden shrapnel imbedded in your body. Normally nobody should have been able to survive what you suffered but somehow you did. Yet most mysterious of all it seemed as if the river itself was healing you for many saw how your wounds seemed to close on their own accord. When we pulled you out of the river this strange healing immediately stopped and so we then took you to this tent where you have resided for the past 2 weeks."

When she said how long I had been there a wave of shock came over me. I had been here for 2 weeks! The shock soon translated into fear as I realized that Artemis had been looking for me all this time only for me to have been here. "How much longer will I have to stay here?" I asked.

"That depends on what Hopocan thinks but I know that your burn will take at least another 2 weeks to heal." She said and I knew that if I was gone another 2 weeks then it didn't matter how much Artemis loved me, I would still be a dead man. I began to rise from the cot I was lying on much to her annoyance.

"Didn't you hear me? Your burns will take weeks to heal so you don't need to be walking around." She exclaimed.

I knew at this point I would have to divulge some secrets or she would never let me leave the tent. "You were right about the water healing me, it is a power I have." When I said it she gave me a look of shock and awe.

"Are you one of the gods?" She asked.

"No but I am the son of a god." I explained as I began the attempt to get up again.

She quickly tried to stop me from doing so however. "Because of what I have seen earlier involving you and the river I will believe what you say but at the very least let me get you some clothes." She then left the tent only to return minutes later carrying a bundle of clothes. "I think just the breeches will be enough for now." She said and handed me a pair of what felt like deer skin breeches and turned her back to me.

After struggling to put them on and giving her the all clear she walked over towards me and helped me get up. As we began walking towards the tent entrance I found that I had to put a large amount of my weight on her. However she didn't falter when I did so, showing the surprising strength of the woman. As we began the short walk to the river many of the tribe members stopped what they were doing to look at us as we walked by.

What would've normally been a minute long walk took us around 5 minutes on account of my injuries. When the water came halfway up my calves I took my weight of her and thanked her for her help only for my legs to no longer be able to support my weight and for me to fall face first into the river.

When I was fully submerged my skin began to itch and I knew that the restorative properties the water had on me was working. I sat there until I no longer felt anything and began to walk towards the shore. When I fully emerged from the water I looked at the moon and determined that it was close to midnight. I looked down at my arm and chest to see that they were fully healed and noticed that my legs could again support my weight.

I looked along the edges of the village and saw that many were staring at me with looks of amazement. One man that was taller than all the others and well muscled walked forward. "The miracles that can be achieved by the gods will never cease to amaze me, however to introduce myself I am Hopocan, chief of the Delaware tribe."

 **A/N Because you guys were awesome with the number of reviews the last chapter got I didn't put a major cliffhanger in the story so unless you want another cliffhanger then review. However I will say this, if you try and criticize the story please actually know what you are talking about. One person asked why Percy fell in love when he was 11… if you paid attention during the story you would notice that the dates I put show that Percy was around 20 when he fell in love. Sorry about the rant, I do appreciate any form of review whether it is criticism or compliments but I hate it when people criticize and don't know what they are talking about. So good, bad, or indifferent please review. P.S. I'm trying really hard to make sure the grammar is good in the new chapters so if you see anything please tell me. MOG out.**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N Yeah I know it's been a while but I couldn't update because I had to write a literary analysis for The Scarlet Letter(btw if you haven't read it let's just say reading it is painful) and I've had a ton of homework recently. So here you go, as always enjoy…**

Zoe POV

2 weeks.

2 weeks since Artemis returned from Olympus with news that Percy was likely in Tartarus.

In those 2 weeks nothing in the hunt had stayed the same. Artemis was placing us on hunt after hunt with a fiery determination as if she wanted to kill every monster that walked the continent. The girls in the hunt too had begun to change. Me, many of the younger girls who Percy had helped make it to the hunt, and a couple of the older girls who had befriended Percy were all devastated by his demise. Meanwhile, most of the older girls who hated Percy from the beginning were almost joyful because of his death. The differing reactions to his death had caused a rift to grow between the two groups and anyone who visited the hunt would see the tension and the near hatred between the two groups.

I had talked about this to Artemis and she too noticed the same things. She noticed the lack of cohesion, she noticed how the two groups never interacted unless necessary, she noticed how the groups even went as far as the separate their tents and form two separate camps. She said that she too was worried about this but she couldn't really do anything about it as they technically weren't breaking any rules.

The hunt was not the only thing had begun to change though. It turns out that when Chiron brought the campers to America to aid us he also had brought everything needed to potentially build a new Camp Half-Blood. Last I heard Chiron had decided to place camp on Long Island in New York City. Artemis had also contacted Lupa who had stated that the romans would likely build in Richmond, Virginia. All around us the world was changing as there was a shift in the location of Western Civilization but the only thing I paid attention to was how Artemis continually sunk deeper into her depression.

Percy POV

 _One man that was taller than all the others and well muscled walked forward. "The miracles that can be achieved by the gods will never cease to amaze me, however to introduce myself I am Hopocan, chief of the Delaware tribe."_

"It is a pleasure to meet you Chief Hopocan, I am Perseus Jackson." I said as I bowed as low as I could out of respect for the man who had saved my life.

My gesture of courtesy and respect seemed to please Hopocan. "Rise Perseus, there is no need to bow to anyone" Only when I stood up did he continue, "normally when we save someone from the wrath of the river we would have a feast of celebration but due to recent struggles we can not do that." When he said this I for the first time truly looked at my surroundings and noticed how many of the fields had been ripped apart, how many houses had chunks of their walls missing or in some cases had simply been destroyed, and how many of the villagers looked as if they hadn't eaten for days. "However if there is anything you need we will try our best to accommodate you." Hopocan said once my attention had returned to him. He then promptly turned and left along with many of the others who barely gave me a second glance.

One person however approached me, he was a tall and wiry man with blonde hair and blue eyes, something that simply was out of place in a native village. When was within arms' reach of him he stopped and scrutinized me. "You said who were the son of a god and judging from the river healing you I'd say you must be a son of Poseidon." I said nothing in return but the look of surprise on my face from him knowing about this must have been all the confirmation he needed. "Don't act so surprised, I'm a son of Apollo and you aren't the first son of Poseidon I've ever met."

"How in the Hades did you get here though?" I asked.

"Just follow me and I'll take you to my room in the longhouse where I'll explain everything." He said and without waiting for an answer began walking, leaving me to have to catch up.

When we entered into a room he and I both sat on the ground and I looked at him for an explanation. "I guess first you want me to explain how I got here." I nodded in approval. "My name is Henry and about 10 years ago I was like you probably once were, a camper at Camp Half Blood. One day me and my best friend were hunting in the surrounding forests when we were ambushed by a group of hellhounds. We drove them off but my friend was mortally wounded and despite my best efforts I couldn't heal him."

I noticed that he had a lone tear running down his face but he still continued despite the obvious mental strife telling this story was putting him in. "When I couldn't heal him he and I both knew he was going to die. He was in immense pain and I couldn't bear to see him in this much pain so with his consent I killed him so he wouldn't have to suffer." His voice was really beginning to choke up now.

"When I got back carrying him in my arms his brothers and sisters in the Hermes cabin never would forgive me. They accused me of not doing enough and they all would just glare at me. The thing is though is that they were right, if I was just strong enough I could've saved him. So I trained harder than ever but in that time they turned the whole camp against me and I just couldn't handle it anymore so I left and snuck aboard a ship heading to the colonies. We were supposed to land in North Carolina but our ship was blown off course in a storm and we crashed off the coast of Delaware. I managed to swim to the beach where I fell unconscious and next thing I knew I was here amongst the Delaware Tribe. Hopocan and his mother, the same who healed you, brought me back to health and from then on I have lived here amongst them."

"But what has been causing all the destruction here?" I asked.

I saw a defeated slump in shoulders when I asked the question. "Ever since I came here I have defended them whenever a mythological creature would show up. Whether it was stray hellhound or cyclops they would try and kill it but when their mortal weapons couldn't kill the monsters I would it for them. Recently a new monster has shown up, whenever it comes I shoot it and it simply keeps killing only my arrows just make it angrier. I have defended them for years and now I can't do anything to help them. If this continues then I fear there will no longer be a Delaware Tribe left to defend." His head hung low in his shame at being unable to help.

"Do you know what it is?"

"It only attacks at night so I haven't been able to see what it is, in the mornings I try to hunt it but it can travel further than I can so to hunt it I would have to leave the village completely defenseless. All I know about it is that it is strong, fast, deadly, and hard as Hades to kill." When he described their issue I knew exactly what I could do to help their people.

"If it will help these people then I will personally hunt this beast."

His head snapped up to me and a questioning expression covered his face, "How do you know you can take it down?"

I knew now that I too would have to reveal some secrets, "I am blessed by Artemis and I have spent the last few years in the hunt." His expression morphed into one of shock but it was just as quickly replaced with hope.

"I must tell Hopocan this news." He quickly got up and motioned for me to follow him. Less than a minute later I stood before a disbelieving Hopocan.

"You mean this man can deliver us from the terror of the night?" He asked Henry who enthusiastically nodded. Hopocan's eyes then shifted to me "But how are you going to hunt it?"

"When it next comes I will shoot to disable it so it can't run very far and the following morning I will hunt it and hopefully the next day I will return successful" I explained

"You make something so difficult seem to simple." Hopocan said

"A complicated plan just means more things that can go wrong." I explained and he absentmindedly nodded.

"Please know that as a son of a god you are not required to help us." He said.

"I do this because it will help your people and because I have a debt to repay for the aid you gave me." I explained and he was about to say something the terrified screams of the villagers reached our ears. Hopocan and Henry appeared alarmed and we all ran outside to see that the village was under attack.

"I guess you will have to use your plan earlier than you thought." He said.

I rotated the ring on my finger for my bow to appear. Both Hopocan and Henry appeared shocked. But before they could ask anything I was already on the move climbing the tree that stood next to the longhouse. When I reached the top I looked for my target and the only thing I could see of it was the rapidly growing trail of destruction it was leaving. Due to the darkness limiting my vision I knew I would have to wait for it to destroy something before I could pinpoint its exact location.

My lucky break came when I saw an entire house get levelled and now I knew where my target was. I nocked an arrow and drew back the bowstring and before I again lost my target I released my arrow. The moment I released I knew it was a good shot and seconds later the pained squeals of the beast reached my ears and it left the village albeit at a slower pace because of the disabling shot I had delivered. Only when I could no longer hear its squeals did I climb down from the tree to see grateful villagers crowding around me, cheering.

"Well done!" Hopocan said but I knew my job still wasn't finished.

"I have to start following it now, it's faster than I thought and if I wait till morning then it will escape." Before anyone could dispute me I escaped from the crowd and began to follow the trail it had left when leaving the village.

 **A/N Not the best chapter in the world but as I go with the story I have to include chapters like this where I set stuff up. Maybe you can see where this is going or maybe you can't, either way you need to keep reading cause you never know when I might shake things up. Because last chapter had a healthy number of reviews I didn't put a cliffhanger in this one. So good, bad, or indifferent please review and tell me.**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N I know it has been a long time since I have written so before you pull out the torches and pitchforks I will try and give a reason for you. In the first semester my grades were not exactly stellar and I am spending as much time as possible with studying which isn't leaving as much time as I would like for writing. With this I also need to say that I will have very few updates (if any) between now and late May when I get out of school. Hopefully you guys understand this and are willing to give me some leeway on the matter. So here is chapter 17 and as always enjoy…**

Chapter 17

Percy POV

I could feel the cold night air rushing by me as I sped off after the beast. I could see where others would have had trouble keeping up with the brutal pace it was setting, but thanks to my time spent with the hunters I had little difficulty with slowly narrowing the gap between the two of us. By the time the sun had risen heralding in a new morning the tree sap form tree limbs broken by its passage was no longer dried and the grass where it had stepped still was flattened and had yet to spring back to an upright position. Almost able to taste my prey I increased my speed and less than 15 minutes later I was rewarded for my efforts when for the first time I was able to hear the sound of heavy footsteps and the breaking of tree limbs. Slowing down to a pace I felt matched the beast I decided to wait until it stopped before I acted against it. I had to wait for close to three hours and for the sun to be less than an hour away from its peak before it stopped to rest. The clearing it stopped to rest in was close to 20 meters wide and was surrounded by trees all around it. Taking stock of the situation I was finally able to determine what I was up against and the results weren't pleasing for before lay the fabled Erymanthian Boar.

It was simply massive, the boar once defeated by Jason would've been every bit of 15 feet standing and with curved tusks 5 feet long and as wide as my arm. I knew I would need the advantage of surprise if I was going to come out on top. Soon the pangs of hunger made themselves present and I moved a mile away to make my own camp, carefully marking the trees to find my back again. After a quick meal of dried beef and cold water from a nearby stream I began the trek back.

When I arrived back at the clearing the boar was still sleeping in the clearing, completely unaware of the danger in the trees. Finding a suitable tree on the edge of the forest and the clearing I climbed up and summoned my bow from its ring form. Before I lined up the shot a heard a rustling in the trees to my right and whipped my bow around to where the sound came from, yet I also kept an eye on the boar, fearing that the however quiet the noise was that it had managed to wake it. For 5 minutes I waited with baited breath but the boar slumbered on and hearing nothing else attributed the rustling to some wind. I released a breath that I hadn't realized I was holding and drew the bowstring back and aimed carefully knowing I would only have one shot against a sleeping target, if this was an incapacitating shot then I would have an enraged and still deadly boar after me.

I decided that my target would be its throat, hoping that a well placed shot here would be able to kill it. With a target in mind I exhaled and took the shot and sent the arrow on its way.

Zoe POV

Another day and the hunt has found itself on another hunt, currently we were hunting a pack of hellhounds. When we inevitably caught the pack we destroyed the relatively small pack within minutes. Once we were finished Artemis addressed the hunt, "Set up camp, we move out again tomorrow." She said and then promptly set up here tent and walked in.

An excited murmur spread through the assembled hunters, this was the first time in weeks that we had taken a break, usually Artemis would've had us on the move again. Looking at the sun I realized that it was only mid morning and joined the rest of the hunt in camp setup.

Around noon when we sat down for lunch, in two separate tables as was the new norm. Looking at our disunion caused me a sense of despair, only a few weeks ago they were the most effective fighting force in the world. But with the disappearance of Percy Artemis had allowed the hunt to disintegrate into two nearly independent groups that did nothing but squabble with each other.

I was brought out of my brooding however, when the faint sound of snapping tree branches could be heard from a distance. Immediately the hunters went to retrieve their bows and prepared to defend the camp from whatever was out there. We waited for half an hour and until the sounds began to recede into the distance. When we could no longer hear anything Artemis again spoke, "Pack camp and do it quickly, we will take a path parallel to whatever that was."

Everyone then scrambled and a brief few minutes later we were on the move, following a route a mile away from our target's path.

We continued running until one of the wolves that screening the hunt and acted as lookouts came running up to Artemis. She seemed to use her goddess of the wild powers to see what the wolf saw because she changed our path in a near 90 degree left turn.

Within minutes we found the clearing and it was then that we saw our target was the Erymanthian Boar. Some of the younger hunt members went pale with fear upon such a large monster. But with some reassurances from the older hunters and they appeared ready yet shaken. Artemis gave us the hand signal to surround it and in her haste one of the younger hunters made too much noise received glares from the rest of us. Once it was apparent the the Boar wasn't awoken by the noise we continued on our path without further incident.

Once all the hunters were in position I watched Artemis, waiting on the order to shoot. I saw her arm raise in preparation but all of a sudden a solid black arrow came whizzing out of the trees.

The Boar either heard the arrow or some sixth sense of danger woke it and stood up only for the arrow to hit it in one of its legs. It squealed in rage looking for where the offending arrow came from, It didn't have to late long as another black arrow struck it again, this time in the side. The Boar turned and having identified who shot it, charged at the tree. With only ten minutes to react the stranger in the tree had no chance.

The Boar had barely started moving when the stranger realized this too and he jumped out of the tree and drew his sword midair. He was dressed in local native clothing yet when he stuck the landing and stood there was doubt who it was, Percy was alive.

I barely registered Artemis' order to fire as I was overcome with shock at seeing e person we all had assumed dead. The air began to fill with the twinge of bowstrings and the hissing of arrows. All the arrows struck the Boar yet none of them had the power or size to do any damage to the massive Boar, all they did was make it even angrier.

"PERCY!" Artemis' cry rang out across the clearing. Percy, who had been focusing on the Boar, lost his concentration to look at Artemis and while he was distracted the Boar struck, throwing Percy to edge of the clearing. The Boar continued to walk towards Percy's prone form, all of continued to fire as hundreds of arrows were now sticking out of its hide. None of the arrows managed to deter the Boar. Not even Artemis' most powerful blow, which had managed to knock it over.

Once it reached him it pressed its left foreleg on his abdomen and a loud cry of pain emanated from him. We all looked on in horror as it lifted its head into air and prepared to bring its tusks down on his head in a killing blow.

Once its tusks began their descent a painfully bright light filled the clearing and the Boar let out a fierce cry of pain and ended almost as soon as it started.

Percy POV

When I saw and heard Artemis I felt two things, first I felt joy that I was finally able to see her again and the next thing I felt was something really heavy hitting me in the ribs and me flying backwards. When I landed I could feel the intense pain in my ribs and knew that at least 2 had to be broken.

The next few moments went by as a blur for me as the haze of pain clouded my vision. My vision was soon filled with the fur and tusks of the Erymanthian Boar. An intense pressure was put on my already broken ribs and pain was the only thing I felt, it overrode all my senses to where everything I knew was pain. Its tusks rose, a clear indication of my nearing death, and in my peripheral vision I saw Artemis who had tears running down her face.

A newfound rage filled my body, not rage at knowing I was about to die, but rage at knowing that I had failed the woman I loved. My blood began to flow faster and I felt energy flood and through my limbs. It wasn't like when I summoned water for there was no clinching in my gut. Instead my entire body grew warm and a brilliant white light flooded my vision and the pressure was lifted off my ribs.

Artemis POV

I was able to see through the light and what I saw amazed me, when the light was projected he somehow summoned a fireball which struck the Boar in the chest, knocking it backwards. Once it landed the Boar lay dead on the ground opposite of a Percy who managed to stand. Joy filled me when I saw he was still alive and I jumped down from the tree,

Percy POV

I saw Artemis run towards me and felt when she pulled me into a massive hug which hurt like Hades. However when I looked down I saw her silver eyes which were filled with joy and had the beginnings of tears in them. I then left the softness of her lips on mine and at that moment I thought that I could deal with the pain as the kiss deepened.

 **A/N Honestly I hope this chapter was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write. Again I apologize for my absence the past two months and how I will not be writing much in the near future. If you are confused as to what happened I will address that next chapter whenever it is as right now I'm really tired.** MOG Out


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N I'm Back! Exams are over at this point and school's out so hopefully I can start updating on a faster, more consistent basis. I won't be able to go everyday like other authors may be able to because I still have summer work and other things to do, but I will be faster. On a side note I've been kind of thinking about it, do y'all want me to rewrite the first few chapters? I wouldn't change any major parts of the plot and I wouldn't put a new update out for about 2-3 weeks but I feel like my writing has improved and that I could write those chapters slightly better. Either way it's up to you as to if I do it or not. And also I've gotten requests to not shift POV's so fast which is warranted considering last chapter where sometimes I would change POV almost every sentence. In school I started a Harry Potter fanfic that I had to write for English and I kinda like it so I may work on that simultaneous to my work on this one. To answer any questions about The Outcasts I will say that I fully intend to finish, you guys will just have to be patient as writing three stories at once is quite a handful. I will be writing for it but at a much slower rate, maybe an update every 3-4ish weeks if that. Sorry for the long AN and now that I'm done ranting, enjoy…**

 **A/N 2 Sorry if you guys are royally pissed about me writing for HP and not this for the past 2 weeks…**

 **A/N 3 I don't know when but pretty soon I'm going to be introducing some big time skips, mainly to get where I want the story to go in terms of time. As a reminder to you guys and myself, it is currently 1781. I will tell you what the date is whenever there is a large time skip.**

Chapter 18

Percy POV

When I felt Artemis' lips leave mine the next sensation I felt was a stinging pain on the left side of my face.

"Miss me?" I asked with a bemused grin. The only response I got was another slap and Artemis resting her head on my chest, her tears soaking into my shirt.

"I thought I had lost you." She said, her voice hoarse.

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that to get rid of me." As we sat there I looked around the circle of hunters that had gathered around us. I guessed that about half of them were happy with me being here while the other half wanted to stick an arrow down my throat. "Looks like some of your hunters wished I was still gone."

Artemis lifted her head out of my chest to observe her hunter. "I've noticed the same thing but I swear to the gods that you are never leaving me ever again." She said as she slowly stood up, clearly not willing to return to her duty.

"Everyone gather around, I'm just going to flash us all to camp." She said as she grabbed my hand and another hunter's hand as they all formed a circle around her. In seconds we were back in our camp, all the hunters who I noticed earlier looking like they wanted to kill me stormed off immediately after we arrived. Those who looked happy to find me stayed with us while Artemis made a plea for her brother to help.

We all knew when Apollo arrived because of the blinding golden light that appeared in our midst. The light disappeared leaving Apollo standing there with a smirk on his face. "Already need me again sister?" He asked, trying to prod Artemis into a response. "Any hunters need a full body checkup?"

"Brother I will kill you if you ever make another comment like that." She said mysteriously a rather wicked sharp-looking knife had made its way into her hand as she said that. Apollo feigned innocence.

"What do you mean? I am simply being a kind healer you wants to help."

"Brother, just shut up and heal Percy." When she said that Apollo expression turned from jovial into one akin to rage.

"He's alive?" Apollo asked putting as much anger into his voice as possible.

"Of course he is now shut up and heal him." I wouldn't have thought it possible but Artemis' demands simply made the look of rage on Apollo's worse grow.

"Fine." He spat. "But only because you're my sister." He said as he walked over and kneeled beside me. "You better keep your hands off my sister or I swear on the Styx I will kill you." Thunder boomed of in the distance but nobody heard as Apollo used his healing magic and the steady thrum of his power masked the sound to all nearby. Apollo clearly was trying to make a point with his healing as instead of the normal, painless way he healed, I could feel my ribs slowly being put back in place while pain exploded throughout my abdomen. I mentally resolved to show no signs of pain so that Apollo would not gain the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt. I could see surprise etched on his face as I calmly stared up at him the entire time, my gaze unwavering.

"Done." He said as he lifted his hands from my abdomen. Still kneeling next to me he began to whisper in my ear,"Don't think I don't know what goes on with my sister, I know how she almost drove herself into the ground looking for you." Artemis pointedly cleared her throat of to the side, annoyed with how long this is taking. "Just remember what I said earlier about keeping your hands off."

Apollo promptly flashed off only for the space he occupied to be filled by Artemis. "What did say to you?" She demanded.

"Nothing of importance, just stuff about the boar." I lied, knowing the explosion that would come from her if I told her about his oath. I could tell she was suspicious but she didn't press for answers.

"Speaking of the boar how did you kill it?" Her question caught me off guard as I had been mentally preparing to fend off other questions.

It took me a while to regain my thoughts, "Oh, that. I honestly don't know, it's like my body went into auto-pilot or something." I explained and Artemis looked like she was thinking about something.

"You said that Hestia and some other goddess blessed you when you first came her right?" She asked as I nodded in confirmation. "Who was it?"

"Hecate." My response seemed to set something off in Artemis as she promptly stood up and grabbed my shoulder. Before I knew it we both were outside of a mansion on Olympus. Artemis promptly stormed up to the door, leaving me to run to try and catch up with her. Artemis tried to ring the doorbell but after a few moments when no response came she promptly kicked the door open.

"Artemis what in the Hades is going on?" My answer go no response as Artemis continued throughout the mansion with me right behind her. We had to navigate our ways through a virtual labyrinth of potion making equipment. Soon we came upon a hallway full of doors and Artemis began to systematically check each door until the she opened the last one on my left.

"There you are you skank." Artemis with a triumphant yet predatory grin.

When I entered the room which was obviously the master bedroom I saw that Artemis had pinned Hecate to the wall

"What is the meaning of this?!" Hecate said as the tried to wiggle her way out of Artemis' death grip on her throat.

"What did you do to him?!"

"What?"

"What did you do with my Percy?!"

Hecate's eyes fell on me standing in the doorway, and understanding entered her eyes. "You mean the blessing I gave him all those years ago?"

"Yes, what did you do to him?" Artemis asked.

"When Hestia and I met him in the forest I decided he would need a little extra help so I gave him limited control over magic. You don't have to worry I'm not going behind your back to steal your boyfriend, he's not my type anyway." Hecate explained and Artemis' grip visibly loosened, allowing Hecate to finally take deep breaths of air.

"So that was just an innocent gift, nothing more." Artemis asked.

"Of course." Artemis dropped Hecate to the floor who promptly began to rub her sore and bruised throat. "I thought you would be more appreciative of something that would save his life one day." Artemis looked shocked at the actions she had taken and looked anywhere except Hecate and me in shame. "Children of Zeus, arrogant as always." Hecate muttered. They were all interrupted by the dull boom of thunder signifying that Zeus was calling for a meeting.

"Artemis we need to go." I said from my spot in the doorway where I had stayed for the whole confrontation. Artemis numbly nodded and slowly walked over and grabbed my hand and flashed us to the throne room. In the throne room all the gods were already assembled. When several of the gods began to look at us funny I noticed that Artemis was still holding my hand and let go. I noticed that many of the gods looked amused but Apollo's entire face had gone red with rage. I took my seat at the bottom of Artemis' throne and waited for Zeus to begin the meeting.

"Since we are all here I will begin, my son Apollo has requested to set forth a notion to the council." Zeus declared before the gods.

Apollo stood before his throne to address the gods and goddesses present. "Since the war is over and now that demigods are in the process of being brought over from England I believe that it is time that we send young Perseus here back to a camp and force him to leave the hunt."

 **A/N I know, I leave you guys for as long as I did and I leave a cliffhanger for you. Sorry. For those that question Artemis' behavior I see it as she just found Percy after losing him for several weeks and thinking he was dead. To me she would overreact to anything she might see as a plot to take him from her again, like Percy mysteriously having magic powers from Hecate (Which would be like a gift to a significant other).**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N Sorry for the long delay in writing this chapter, I got caught up in writing my HP fanfic and with summer workouts starting I had difficulty finding the time to write this for this one. Sorry for the wait and as always enjoy…**

Chapter 19

" _Since we are all here I will begin, my son Apollo has requested to set forth a notion to the council." Zeus declared before the gods._

 _Apollo stood before his throne to address the gods and goddesses present. "Since the war is over and now that demigods are in the process of being brought over from England I believe that it is time that we send young Perseus here back to a camp and force him to leave the hunt."_

Percy POV

Silence enveloped the entire throne room around me as everyone present took a moment to register just what Apollo was suggesting. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a silver flash and a corresponding flash directly in front of Apollo's throne. As the flash dissipated Artemis stood there with an arrow nocked on her silvery bow and aimed directly in between Apollo's eyes.

"You little piece of shit." Artemis said in a voice barely louder than a whisper yet everyone in the throne room could hear the pure, unadulterated venom in her voice.

"Artemis!" Zeus yelled as he tried to regain order inside the throne room which had descended into chaos. Seeing that his current attempts were all failing, Zeus threw a lightning bolt into the sky and the resulting boom of thunder caused everyone to quiet down. "Artemis, please return to your throne and the rest of you please shut up." Zeus said with an exasperated tone. I saw Artemis give Zeus a glare before she complied with his demand and sat back down on her throne, yet everyone noticed that she kept her bow in one hand and placed a knife on the armrest of her throne.

Zeus gave her an irritated glance but knew not to argue with her about it. "Now then, Apollo, would you care to tell us why you brought this before us?" Zeus asked but I could tell by the phrasing that he was outright demanding it.

Apollo stood in front of his throne before he spoke to address the assembled Council members. "The threat of Kampe has passed, it is time for Perseus to return to either of the camps and resume the activities of a demigod as he should have this entire time." Seeing several of the gods of the council nodding. Apollo continued with his confidence growing before he addressed Zeus directly. "And father, from what I've seen your maiden daughter has begun to grow affectionate towards the boy. By separating him from the hunt you will ensure that she will never fall for him." As Apollo said this he placed a slight emphasis on the word maiden. When he was finished he sent a quick smirk towards me and I could tell Artemis saw it too as she quickly stiffened next to me. I quickly grabbed Artemis' arm and whispered in her ear trying to get her to calm down before she did something rash. The tenseness in her shoulders left her and she gave me a grateful look. Looking back towards the Council I noticed that Zeus had seen out little interaction and was looking at me with a calculating look. When Zeus and I made eye contact he gave me a slight smile and a nod before he began to speak to the entire Council.

"The Council will now vote," He announced. "If you wish for Perseus to be removed from the hunt say Aye." Zeus looked directly at me and gave a quick wink. "If you wish for Perseus to remain with the hunt then say nay. I vote nay." Zeus' vote shocked the entire council, everyone in the Council was expecting to vote for a potential suitor of his daughter to be separated from her.

By the time the vote came to Aphrodite the voting was currently against Perseus and Artemis by a tally of 6-5. Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis, Hephaestus, and Hermes had voted nay while Ares, Demeter, Hera, Apollo, Dionysus, and Athena had voted Aye. Before casting her vote Aphrodite looked around the room before her eyes finally settled on Artemis and me. She looked at us for nearly a minute as silence enveloped the Council, with everyone waiting to see how the Goddess of Love would vote.

Clearing her throat Aphrodite stood to give her vote, "As the Goddess of Love how could I possibly break apart a romance like none other?" She asked "I vote Nay." With her vote the Council had reached a deadlock and according to the Ancient Laws if the Council reached a deadlock then the decision went in favor of the side Zeus had voted on, which in case was in favor of keeping me in the hunt.

Apollo sent a withering glare in my direction before he left the throne room. All the gods except Artemis and Zeus left leaving me alone with the two. Zeus stood from his chair and walked over to us while we stood there quietly talking.

"Perseus." He said as he stood in front of the two of us. "Congratulations on winning the vote." He said with a smile.

"Thank you Lord Zeus." I said as I bowed before the King of the Gods. As I stood I asked the question that had been bothering me throughout the Council meeting. "Lord Zeus," I began "Why did you vote in favor of me staying with your daughter?"

Zeus sighed before he told the two of us to walk with him. Only when we had reached the gardens surrounding his home did he answer my question. "Perseus, I will be the first to admit that I have done wrong by many of my daughter, especially poor Hebe." Zeus said as he shuddered when he said the part about Hebe. Everyone on Olympus knew how loveless that marriage was. "Now that you Artemis are close I find I am given a second chance at doing right by a daughter of mine when it comes to love," As he said this both us had a slight blush. "So when Apollo brought this up I knew immediately where my vote would go." As he said this Artemis walked forward and gave Zeus an appreciative hug. Zeus looked stunned by this and by the look of surprise on his face it was pretty easy to see that this was a truly rare occurrence for him.

"Thanks daddy." She said as she disengaged from the hug.

"And besides," Zeus began with a smirk on his face, "I saw how Perseus here was able to stop you from taking Apollo's head off, anyone who can control you that well is more than deserving of my approval." Artemis' only response was a quick glare which she quickly dropped once she saw the teasing grin on her dad's face. Zeus however quickly dropped any sense of joviality as he looked he directly in the eyes. "However I think you already understand what will happen if you hurt my daughter." I gulped in response and quickly began to nod in confirmation. "Good." He said before a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and surrounded him before whisking him away. We he was gone I looked down at my clothes and noticed as a parting warning Zeus had let the lightning bolt get close enough to me to singe small parts of my clothing.

Artemis quickly laughed next to me before she grabbed me and took us away from Olympus back to the camp. When we got back the hunters were all spread throughout the camp. Some looked at me with a look of disappointment that I wasn't a pile of ashes while the rest looked happy to see me returning intact. It was then that I realized that I had never told the Delaware tribe the good news regarding their little problem. Quickly whispering in Artemis' ear that I needed to do so she grabbed me and transported us to the burnt remains of the Erymanthian Boar. Taking one look at the charred flesh and massive hole in its chest I began an internal struggle to not retch at the sight and smell of the remains. Walking up to the tusks of the boar which somehow came out intact I grabbed the pen from my pocket and put it in its sword form before slashing on of the tusks off.

Once I told Artemis where the tribe was located we left with the severed tusk in hand. Once we were in view the villagers streamed out to greet us and marvel at the size of the boar's tusk. The crowd quickly parted to reveal the shocked faces of Hopocan and Henry.

"You did it." Henry said and he too stared in disbelief at the severed tusk which was laying on the ground in front of us.

Hopocan's eyes continued to shift from me the tusk before he walked forward and kneeled before me. Looking at the ground he then said, "Lord Perseus, I as leader of the Delaware wish to give you our undying loyalty for this deed you have done for us." To my surprise and Artemis'. Hopocan then said something in his tribe's' language before it was repeated by all the gathered villagers. "Normally we would celebrate this momentous occasion with a feast…" Hopocan explained while giving me a questioning look as to whether I would stay or not.

Instead it was Artemis who answered for me. "We would love to stay for the feast."

The rest of the day was spent with the villagers preparing food for the feast. When the sun went down the entire village gathered in the village center where all the prepared food was laid out and several deer the men of the village had killed were slowly turning on their spits over the cooking fires. When the deer finished cooking the food was passed out to all those in the village as the villagers spread out to talk and eat. After all the food was eaten and the village center was cleared Artemis and I sat between Henry and Hopocan inside a circle of villagers that all sat on the edges of the village center.

Henry leaned over and whispered to us about what was happening, "The people of the village are about to perform one of their sacred dances, they never show this to outsiders and it took years before they trusted me to let me watch this. That they are doing this now is an extreme showing of trust and goodwill." He said as Hopocan stood and spoke to the assembled villagers in their language. What Hopocan said brought forth a wave of cheering as the dancers in their costumes entered the cleared space.

Once the dancing was over Artemis and I found ourselves in Hopocan's tent with Henry and Hopocan's son drinking herbal tea.

"I'm afraid our time together is coming to a close." Hopocan's son who was referred to as Captain Pipe said.

"Yes," I said before reaching for a pouch that I had brought with me to give to Hopocan but his son would probably be better for future needs. "In this pouch I have twenty golden drachmas," When I said this Henry stiffened and leaned over to look into the bag. "As Henry knows what these are I leave it up to him to explain it to you but know that these can be used to talk to me in emergency situations should you ever have need of me again."

Pipe looked awed at the coins in the pouch before he thanked us and gave to us what he said was wampum, which was used as a ceremonial gift. After leaving the tent Artemis and I immediately left to return to the Hunters.

 **A/N Hope this wasn't too bad. Don't know when the next chapter will be out though.**


End file.
